TCM and western psychiatry: An integrative proposal

Abstract

The LVR Klinik Bedburg Hau cooperated with the Radboud University Nijmegen in an integrative medicine project that added weekly acupuncture treatments to the usual western psychiatric treatment in outpatients with chronic schizophrenia. Acupuncture treatment was performed in groups. The amount of dropout in the acupuncture group was significantly lower, compared to any other group-treatment conducted in the outpatient-clinic so far. Moreover, most patients asked for more acupuncture treatment after the project was over, something that is not often seen in this chronic group of often non-compliant patients. Psychological testing was conducted before and after the treatment period, results are being gathered currently, first results show positive effects in the area of sleep latency, awakenings per night, and concentration. In short, this project resulted in the proposal to implement acupuncture in the western psychiatric treatment that is usually given in this clinic. This may be done as in the project, namely in a group, thereby no patient is left alone during treatment and patients are able to support each other. Moreover, by providing weekly acupuncture treatments, more contact is provided between the clinic and the patient, allowing for more possibilities to recognise early warning symptoms and respond to them, without investing more than approximately 15 min (direct intensive contact) per patient per week (and about half an hour observational presence in the group, with needles inserted). This might result in less time per patient, if looked upon from the practitioners point of view (1 h per month during 4 contact moments, compared to the usual approximately 2 h per month in direct contact), but on the other hand it results in more control. These findings are in line with recent studies on health care economics, showing that integrative medicine costs less and results in healthier patients [1]. In this presentation, a full integrative treatment proposal for patients with schizophrenia will be presented, based on all results that were found in the conducted pilot study.