Clinicians often turn to the use of pharmacotherapy when it comes to the management of different types of mental disorders.
However, studies have shown the use of complementary and alternative therapies or interventions tend to be reported more in individuals with psychiatric disorders when compared to the rest of the population. The interest in the use of complementary and alternative interventions has been growing among healthcare professionals as a means of improving the lives of patients.
While there is an immense interest in the uses of complementary and alternative interventions, there is difficulty bringing all of these under one umbrella, as a result of the diversity of practices across various cultures.
The use of relaxation and medication techniques has a long and observable history among many cultures. The intended purpose of meditation is to help an individual to focus all of his attention on a phrase, image and idea in hopes of reducing anxiety symptoms.
A 2007 meta-analysis compared the use of meditation for anxiety disorder to the use of pharmacotherapy and psychological treatments and found the meditation to be more successful in alleviating some of the problematic symptoms that were being experienced. The study, published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, identified a reduction in all of the anxiety scale scores for the group that received meditation compared to those who did not.
Acupuncture is also another form of alternative intervention. The traditional Chinese treatment uses needles that are inserted in specific parts of the body to help achieve homeostasis between the yin and yan forces that circulate throughout the body. Obtaining this balance is considered to be critical to achieving good health.
A clinical randomized trial compared the effects of acupuncture and breath retraining in a sample of 10 individuals who were diagnosed with hyperventilation syndrome. The research determined that acupuncture produced positive effects in reducing their anxiety symptoms and hyperventilation symptoms.
In terms of depression treatment, alternative treatments that have been identified include herbal interventions, nutritional supplements, aromatherapy, cognitive-based interventions (e.g. hypnotherapy), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and light therapy.
The use of the herbal remedy St. John's Wort for the treatment of mild to moderate depression has been examined in several clinical trials, and a meta-analysis found the use of St. John's Wort to be comparable to conventional antidepressants. St. John's Wort is recognized as an herbal medication that should be tried in those individuals who are unable to tolerate other antidepressant therapies, but caution is to be exercised when it is given with other medications due to the potential for drug-drug interactions.
Other complementary medications that are used for depression include 5-hydroxytroptophan, S-adenosyl methionine or folate, which have been shown to have a significant effect on improving depressive symptoms when used in combination with antidepressants.
While aromatherapy has displayed some positive results, such as mood improvement, there is still a lack of substantial clinical evidence to support its use for treating depression. More trials demonstrating its efficacy are still required.
Additionally, the use of hypnosis and cognitive behavioral therapy (termed cognitive hypnotherapy) was examined in a randomized controlled trial of 84 patients with major depression for 16 weeks. The study found treatment outcomes were significantly improved for individuals who were on the combination of CBT and hypnotherapy with reductions in depression, anxiety and hopelessness being observed in the cognitive hypnotherapy group compared to the CBT-only group.
The interest that is currently being directed toward the use of complementary therapies for depression and anxiety will only continue to grow as more clinical trials are released that support the use of these therapies as either being comparable or even exceeding the efficacy of conventional therapies in certain cases. But until that time, the evidence will continue to mount in favor of or against these approaches.
