Natural treatments for fear and depression

Relation

BREED C, Bereznay C. Treatment of depression and anxiety by naturopathic doctors: an observation study of naturopathic medicine within an integrated multidisciplinary municipal health center [Published Online Ahead of Print February 6, 2017].J aged complement med.

Draft

Observation study

Study goal

To determine whether holistic, naturopathic interventions have a measurable effect on patients with anxiety, depression or both.

Participant

The study participants were normal patients of naturopathic treatment within the Health point system, a network of non-profit municipal health centers in a suburb of King County, Washington. The average age was 44 years; The participants were mostly female and in English. A third identified as a Hispano -American, and half had an earned income on or below the federal poverty line.

method

This 26-month study was carried out from December 2009 to February 2012. A total of 60 patients met the admission criteria for the study of at least 2 visitors during the study period. The average number of visits per patient was 3.3. All 60 participants were among a naturopath, visits lasted an average of 30 minutes. The patients also received accompanying team maintenance from other providers: conventional medical providers (55 %), behavioral health consultant (55 %), nutritionist (12 %) and/or acup points (5 %). The most frequently used modalities included dietary supplements such as vitamins and minerals (75 %), medicines (32 %), homeopathic medicines (30 %), herbal medicine (25 %) and acupuncture (20 %).

Target parameters

The patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale (GAD-7) were used to screen on depression or anxiety.

Key insights

Comparison of average initial and final screening results showed a highly significant improvement (P<0.0001) for fear and for depression: 16.4 opposite 8.6 for PHQ-9 and 12.4 opposite 7.2 for GAD-7. The response rate was defined as a 50 %acceptance of personal values ​​in PHQ-9 (depression) or GAD-7 (fear). Using this response rate, the response rates in patients with output values> 10 58.6 % for depression and 50 % for anxiety were.

Practice implications

Depression is the main cause of the disease burden in countries with medium and high incomes, and anxiety affects about 1 out of 5 people.¹Ideal treatments are safe and effective in the long term and have no side effects. In depressive diseases, the effectiveness of pharmaceutical antidepressants is limited. About 70 % of the patients who were prescribed antidepressants in light to moderate depression do not respond to the therapy.²Light to moderate depression make up the majority of cases in which prescription medication are used. It is increasingly being recognized that complete remission in the case of a pharmaceutical treatment is either only of short duration or fail to fail, and in 25 % of those who address it, there is some medication tachphylaxis (a quick acceptance of the response to a medication after its administration).³Patients with anxiety find a robust effectiveness against placebo for short -term symptom treatment with anxiolytic drugs.⁴However, these drugs are affected with side effects, and the long -term application can ultimately lead to dependency, resistance, withdrawal symptoms and even an increased mortality rate of all causes.⁵including dementia⁶and cancer.⁷

Overall, this study sends a signal to the clinical world of psychiatry to look beyond neurotransmitter and to follow a naturopathic and holistic approach.

Regardless of whether the problem is afraid, depression or anxious depression (which has both anxiety and depressive symptoms), the current conventional wisdom, neurotransmitter by using pharmaceutical means, is severely restricted. Naturopathy has a lot to offer for these diseases, since these mood disorders are a culmination of numerous factors, including blood sugar fluctuations, sleep disorders, inflammation, lack of nutrients, hormonal imbalances, stressors, imbalances of the sympathetic and parasympathetic reaction and dysregulation of the hypothalamus-hypophysen-naval axis.⁸

Overall, this study sends a signal to the clinical world of psychiatry to look beyond neurotransmitter and to follow a naturopathic and holistic approach. A strength of this study is the inclusion of a population group with low incomes, a group that is known to be treated more difficult. This study also confirms 2 other previously published studies. One was an Australian -observing pilot study from 2014, which evaluated 31 consultations in 15 patients. This study found a potentially advantageous effect of naturopathy to improve depression, anxiety and stress reactions. A second study, an 8-week Canadian study, which was carried out in 2009, rated 75 participants and found significant improvements in the fear reaction through naturopathic treatment.⁹

A restriction of this study is its size. Although this work is quite positive and significant, it is still a relatively small study. It should be noted that another 62 patients were admitted, but did not complete the second visit and therefore were not possible for an admission. It is also limited because, as the authors also emphasize in the discussion, there was no control group or randomization, which leaves the possibility of distortion from the selection.

This study not only considered a single monotherapy (e.g. St. John's wort). Instead, it included a naturopathic paradigm, an important and welcome step to the clinical acceptance of a system -based and more functional approach to treat anxiety and depression. My hope is that these work will encourage further studies that deal intensively with the paradigm of naturopathic treatment of affective disorders in order to promote our ability to assess individual patients and to offer individual support based on the needs of each patient.

This work is in contrast to the current "gold standard" studies that follow the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled method for evaluating therapies. While the gold standard studies are well suited for the evaluation of individual active ingredients if no other changes in care are made, they do not cultivate an integrative program that has been developed for each patient and is really dealing with the complexity of several underlying factors and needs. According to the author, the development of naturopathic paradigm studies such as this as a new "platinum" standard should serve for the future of medical research to treat affective disorders.