What is CAM

What is CAM? 

What is CAM

What is CAM? 

But what does it mean to treat the whole person or overall

health? It means considering the full array of factors that can

impact mental health, including:

− Physical

− Mental

− Environmental

− Spiritual

− Energy influences

It also means therapeutically addressing the individual through

all channels that can affect mental health for the better,

including:

− Physical

− Mental

− Communication

− Perceptual

Each individual is unique. No human physiology is exactly like

another, and no life experience is the same for any two people.

So in our medical literature we almost never find a 100%

response to any treatment. What may be effective therapy for

one individual, such as the adjustment of neurotransmitters,

may be ineffective or deleterious for another.

Even within a single diagnosis such as schizophrenia, the

combinations of possible contributing factors—physically,

genetically, prenatally, and environmentally, just to name a

few—could be almost infinite.

Thus the advantage of the CAM toolbox—a variety of

approaches that account for human individuality and that may

be able to raise overall health sufficiently to tip the scales

toward recovery. If a woman with depression can get a 10%

improvement each with nutrients, diet change, exercise,

acupuncture, and yoga, we have a 50% gain without side effects

and with improved physical health.

16 | Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments in Psychiatry

While to some psychiatrists CAM may appear to be a random

series of “new age” therapies that whimsically catch media

attention, the larger message that has emerged is that CAM

reminds us to look at the entire individual rather than just the

brain when dealing with psychiatric disorders.

The additional advantage of CAM is that, while pharmacology

can help manage symptoms, it does not necessarily raise overall

health and can, in fact, mask signs that unhealthful conditions

exist. This can worsen health and well-being in the long run. The

CAM approach lets us look at the whole person to increase the

chances of those negative conditions being uncovered.

Treating the Body

It is easily observed that physical health affects mental health.

Even in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, he observed

that one’s senses and perceptions could be altered by the body:

“A little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach

makes them cheats. You [the ghost] may be an undigested bit of

beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an

underdone potato.”

The array of physical conditions that can impact mental health

is so vast that many books have been written on the subject and

the topic remains substantially incomplete. We have devoted a

chapter to this subject but, suffice it to say, the importance of

proper physical screening of psychiatric patients cannot be

overemphasized.

Additionally, as Dickens noted, diet plays a significant role in

mental well-being and overall health. Lack of proper nutrition,

food allergies that present with psychiatric symptoms (such as

depression and anxiety), food additives that some individuals are

sensitive to, and an excess of junk food can negatively affect

mood and behavior, sometimes to a pathological level.

Toxic exposures of many kinds can dramatically influence

mood, perceptions, and actions. Pesticides, mercury, gases,

pollutants, lead, and even mycotoxins can all be suspects in

Promoting Wellness in Mental Health: The CAM Approach in Psychiatry | 17

triggering mental disorders. A subset of toxic exposure would

include unwanted effects of medication. Many drugs,

particularly in combination, produce psychiatric symptoms.

Pain can sometimes be a hidden contributor to mental

suffering. Dental issues, back pain, an improperly healed

surgery, a hidden fracture, foot anomalies—any kind of painproducing

ailment—may go unnoticed by the physician, but

shouldn’t. Also, many patients may fail to report the pain due to

their inability to express themselves or because they have

become accustomed to it.

Perceptual issues, particularly hearing and vision impairment,

can often go overlooked by doctor and client, yet they can result

in psychiatric sequelae such as hallucinations, anxiety,

depression, and confusion.

In addition to treating physical disorders, clinicians can use the

body as a channel for therapeutic intervention. A number of

physical treatments have been found to improve mental health.

Numerous nutrient therapies are efficacious for a panoply of

psychiatric disorders. Some treatments, such as omega-3 fatty

acids, have become so commonplace that they are now

considered best practice in mainstream medicine.

Herbal treatments have a role in psychiatric medicine and a

number of them have been reported safe and effective in the

literature.

Exercise has been shown to be very effective as a mood elevator

and lack of exercise can impair the quality of life for any

psychiatric patient as well as retard recovery.

A host of other CAM physical approaches can change mental

and emotional aspect including chiropractic, yoga, acupuncture,

acupressure, breathing exercises, dance therapy, and balance

therapy.

Environmental Influences

In the early 1900s, when psychoanalysis was the dominant force

in psychiatry, Sigmund Freud wrote, “If a man has been his

18 | Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments in Psychiatry

mother’s undisputed darling, he retains throughout life the

triumphant feeling, the confidence in success, which not seldom

brings actual success along with it.” (Freud 1917)

As time has marched on, however, and research has

accumulated, we have come to see that many environmental

influences—besides one’s parents—can affect the mind. And, of

course, these influences can be positive or negative.

The person’s job can be a risk factor. Many professions use

chemicals that can have toxic effects on the brain, including

farming, metal plating, laboratory work, mining, and certain

types of manufacturing.

Where one lives or where one has recently been can be

important. Toxic waste, a paucity of certain nutrients in the

region’s soil, political upheaval or other environmental threats

can and do make a difference to mental well-being.

Chronic exposure to power lines, for example, has been shown

to increase suicide rates up to threefold in electrical workers

(Wijngaarden 2000). Also, high-density negative ions in the air,

as are seen near waterfalls, produce a 43% improvement in

depression (Terman 2007). Exposure to outdoor greenery as in

parks, meadow, and rural settings causes significant

improvement in symptoms of ADHD (Kuo 2004). A review of

people doing exercise amongst outdoor greenery such as walks

and gardening found that 94% of respondents felt it improved

their mental health and 71% reported decreased depression

(MIND 2007).

Spiritual Matters

A survey of 1144 American physicians found that amongst all

doctors, psychiatrists are the least likely to be religious.

Additionally, nonpsychiatrist physicians who are religious are

less willing to refer their clients to a psychiatrist (Curlin 2007).

By contrast, only 15% of the American population defines itself

as atheist, agnostic, or of no religious affiliation (Kosmin 2008).

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Religion plays a major role in the lives of a great many, and it

can have profound effects on the mental health of its adherents.

Individuals can suffer great anxiety and depression over a

religious issue, be it guilt from transgressions, abortion,

infidelity, pornography addiction, dishonesty, child abuse,

divorce or other weighty matters. Fear of going to hell or being

excommunicated can become an obsession. They may not think

to mention such things to a psychiatrist since he is a doctor and

not a priest/pastor/rabbi.

People of Eastern faiths have additional issues and traditions

that could trouble them and that are worth exploring.

The simple question “Do you go to church?” or “Do you have a

spiritual practice?” could open the floodgates to information and

insight into the case as well as an avenue of recovery for the

individual. Such a person could benefit from religious counseling

perhaps more so than any other form of treatment.

Addressing the Mind

Traditional treatment of mental and emotional issues involves

psychotherapy, some form of practitioner-patient interchange

that allows the client to discuss trauma and life issues with the

hope of unburdening the individual to some degree or leading

him/her towards solutions for the issues he/she faces.

But other approaches have emerged—many from Asia—that

provide a different look at the mind and living which offers

therapeutic benefits.

The concept of mindfulness or being in the present has been

imported from India, China, and neighboring regions and

encourages quieting the mind rather than engaging it or delving

into it continuously for solutions.

This practice of quieting thought can have many forms,

including physical actions such as breathing exercises or taking

walks and has become a popular method for calming anxiety,

reducing obsessive thought, and relieving depression.

What is CAM?