Saturday, July 16, 2005
Alternative Treatments?
LAT,
among others, reports
on a study that investigated congregational prayer, and bedside
therapies using music and touch, to see if they could detect an
improvement in survival after surgery. The study was
published in
The Lancet. Unfortunately, the Lancet
site is down
for maintenance so I can't access it now. I can, however, put
on
my perpetual sophomore hat, and offer a few uninformed comments.
Some cultures have a tradition of always having someone stay with a person who has been hospitalized.
To illustrate: my brother, when he was studying Linguistics, went to the Philippines to do a research project. The doctor at the International Health office did not recommend a typhoid vaccine, apparently assuming that he planned to go to the usual tourist destinations. He did not. He went out to remote villages, armed only with a rudimentary knowledge of Tagalog, to gather his data.
He developed typhoid, and ended up in a hospital. I think he was there for a few weeks, although that was twenty-five years ago and I might not remember correctly. Every single minute, there was a nonmedical person from the community there with him. I have no idea what the mechanism in the community was to coordinate this, since he had no family or acquaintances in the area.
He often told them that they did not need to stay, but they insisted. I have no idea if it actually helped him recover faster, but perhaps it did. As an aside, I would like to thank the people of the Philippines for offering this compassion to my brother.
Some US churches and hospitals have a volunteer program known as NODA: No One Dies Alone. They arrange for a constant vigil in the room of patients expected to die. This, however, is not an intrinsic part of our culture, and it is not intended to enhance survival or speed recovery.
Is there anything practical to be learned from all of this? Sure. Hospitals should hire enough nurses. Another thing that I think helps, is a bit of advice I give to everyone who has a family member in the hospital. Some families do try to have someone there all the time. Sometimes, the family starts to get burned out. That is not helpful. The various family members need to cooperate so that everyone takes a turn, but not feel so obligated to provide 24-hour companionship that everyone gets worn out. Also, it helps to personalize the patient's room, to some extent. Put up get-well cards, mementos of community activities, and photos of family members. Bring flowers every few days. Bring a CD player with the patient's favorite music.
I am not a nurse, and perhaps it is presumptuous of me to day this, but I think that that those personal touches in the room make it easier for overworked nurses (and doctors) to remember that the patient is not only a human being, but a part of someone's family and community. This might make it easier for them to provide the compassion that the patient needs, and help them provide compassion in a way that is more specific to the patient's needs, and therefore more effective.
By the way, I do not think that compassion is "alternative therapy." It is just part of being human.
Healing Power of Prayer Doubted in Patient StudyNurses have known for a long time that it helps to care about patients, and to express their concern with soothing touch and words. Unfortunately, nursing staff levels have declined in most hospitals. In some, it now is difficult for nurses to perform these traditional functions. Not only are they pressed for time, but sometimes they are so stressed that it is hard for them to put themselves in a frame of mind that enables them to soothe others effectively.
[permanent Furl archive link]
Researchers say people benefited from bedside therapies like music and touch before surgery, but congregations' blessings had no effect.
By Brad Wible, Times Staff Writer
July 16, 2005
Prayers from distant congregations did not affect patients' recovery from coronary artery procedures, but bedside therapies using music and touch before surgery reduced stress and offered a slight advantage in survival, scientists reported Friday. [...]
Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist congregations were given patients' names and prayed for them for five to 30 days.
Survival rates did not differ among those who received prayer and those who did not, the study found.
Krucoff said the study was "not a disproof of prayer," noting that most of the patients — whether or not they received prayers from the congregations — had friends and relatives praying for them.
The bedside therapy given to patients included listening to music, imagining favorite places, practicing yoga-like breathing and being touched by practitioners of alternative medicine.
Researchers said the therapeutic benefit could have resulted from the presence of a caring individual who helped reduce patients' preoperative anxiety. Stress reduction could affect physiological processes and improve survival, Krucoff said.
Some cultures have a tradition of always having someone stay with a person who has been hospitalized.
To illustrate: my brother, when he was studying Linguistics, went to the Philippines to do a research project. The doctor at the International Health office did not recommend a typhoid vaccine, apparently assuming that he planned to go to the usual tourist destinations. He did not. He went out to remote villages, armed only with a rudimentary knowledge of Tagalog, to gather his data.
He developed typhoid, and ended up in a hospital. I think he was there for a few weeks, although that was twenty-five years ago and I might not remember correctly. Every single minute, there was a nonmedical person from the community there with him. I have no idea what the mechanism in the community was to coordinate this, since he had no family or acquaintances in the area.
He often told them that they did not need to stay, but they insisted. I have no idea if it actually helped him recover faster, but perhaps it did. As an aside, I would like to thank the people of the Philippines for offering this compassion to my brother.
 |
 |
| This is the first official flag intended to represent the country. It was created by the Katipunan at Naic, Cavite in 1897. | This is a depiction of the original flag of the Philippines as it was conceived by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo. The blue was of a lighter shade than the currently mandated royal blue, the sun had many more rays although it still had eight points, and it has a mythical face. |
Some US churches and hospitals have a volunteer program known as NODA: No One Dies Alone. They arrange for a constant vigil in the room of patients expected to die. This, however, is not an intrinsic part of our culture, and it is not intended to enhance survival or speed recovery.
Is there anything practical to be learned from all of this? Sure. Hospitals should hire enough nurses. Another thing that I think helps, is a bit of advice I give to everyone who has a family member in the hospital. Some families do try to have someone there all the time. Sometimes, the family starts to get burned out. That is not helpful. The various family members need to cooperate so that everyone takes a turn, but not feel so obligated to provide 24-hour companionship that everyone gets worn out. Also, it helps to personalize the patient's room, to some extent. Put up get-well cards, mementos of community activities, and photos of family members. Bring flowers every few days. Bring a CD player with the patient's favorite music.
I am not a nurse, and perhaps it is presumptuous of me to day this, but I think that that those personal touches in the room make it easier for overworked nurses (and doctors) to remember that the patient is not only a human being, but a part of someone's family and community. This might make it easier for them to provide the compassion that the patient needs, and help them provide compassion in a way that is more specific to the patient's needs, and therefore more effective.
By the way, I do not think that compassion is "alternative therapy." It is just part of being human.
Categories: science, medicine, being nice
Technorati tags: medicine
(Note: The Rest of the Story/Corpus Callosum has moved. Visit the new site here.)
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Sunday, July 10, 2005
Pardon Me, But...
I didn't take the time to organize my thinking on this; I just want to
get the thoughts down on paper pixels.
In the late 80's to early 90's, psychologists and psychiatrists who were not psychodynamically oriented developed a branch known as cognitive therapy. This essentially was an outgrowth of behavioral therapy. Pure behaviorists are fond of pointing out that it was not really new; after all, thinking is just a specialized form of behavior; therefore, cognitive therapy is just a specialized form of behavioral therapy.
It occurs to me that it might make sense to think of emotions and logic in the same way. That is, logic is just a specialized form of emotion.
Or, more precisely, logical thought is just a specialized form of emotional thought. The distinction there being that formal logic -- that which is expressed on paper with axioms and syllogisms -- is not what actually happens in the brain when we think we are thinking logically. Formal logic can be carried out by electronic circuits that use logic gates (AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, and EXOR). It is common to think of neuronal synapses as being analogous to logic gates, but that is a gross oversimplification.
It is true that those thoughts that we think of as emotions generally occur in a different part of the brain, than those thoughts that we think of as logic. But they both are forms of thought, and both take place using the same basic biological apparatus.
If it is true that logical thought is merely a specialized form of emotional thought, then what is the difference, i.e. what is the specialization? Perhaps is is like the difference between a wide-angle lens and a macro (close-up) lens. Emotional thought captures the big picture; logical thought captures the details. It is not as though one is better than the other; rather, the view provided by one is more useful for certain purposes, while the view provided by the other is more useful for other purposes.
For example, consider your reaction to the two symbols: Auschwitz, and motherhood. Trying to use logic to discern the differences between those symbols is a hopeless exercise. It is much more useful to rely upon your emotional response, rather than your logical response. The wide-angle view is the one that is useful. In contrast, consider your response to this pair of symbols: three, and five. Both are prime numbers, both are odd numbers, both are Fibonacci numbers. Both can be counted on the fingers of one hand, assuming your hand has five fingers. A wide-angle view does not really distinguish between the two symbols. For that, you need the close-up view.
This post was inspired by Cyndy's at Mousemusings, which was inspired by Kathy's at Creating Passionate Users.
Categories: armchair musings
Technorati tags: psychology
(Note: The Rest of the Story/Corpus Callosum has moved. Visit the new site here.)
E-mail a link that points to this post:
Comments (3)
In the late 80's to early 90's, psychologists and psychiatrists who were not psychodynamically oriented developed a branch known as cognitive therapy. This essentially was an outgrowth of behavioral therapy. Pure behaviorists are fond of pointing out that it was not really new; after all, thinking is just a specialized form of behavior; therefore, cognitive therapy is just a specialized form of behavioral therapy.
It occurs to me that it might make sense to think of emotions and logic in the same way. That is, logic is just a specialized form of emotion.
Or, more precisely, logical thought is just a specialized form of emotional thought. The distinction there being that formal logic -- that which is expressed on paper with axioms and syllogisms -- is not what actually happens in the brain when we think we are thinking logically. Formal logic can be carried out by electronic circuits that use logic gates (AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, and EXOR). It is common to think of neuronal synapses as being analogous to logic gates, but that is a gross oversimplification.
It is true that those thoughts that we think of as emotions generally occur in a different part of the brain, than those thoughts that we think of as logic. But they both are forms of thought, and both take place using the same basic biological apparatus.
If it is true that logical thought is merely a specialized form of emotional thought, then what is the difference, i.e. what is the specialization? Perhaps is is like the difference between a wide-angle lens and a macro (close-up) lens. Emotional thought captures the big picture; logical thought captures the details. It is not as though one is better than the other; rather, the view provided by one is more useful for certain purposes, while the view provided by the other is more useful for other purposes.
For example, consider your reaction to the two symbols: Auschwitz, and motherhood. Trying to use logic to discern the differences between those symbols is a hopeless exercise. It is much more useful to rely upon your emotional response, rather than your logical response. The wide-angle view is the one that is useful. In contrast, consider your response to this pair of symbols: three, and five. Both are prime numbers, both are odd numbers, both are Fibonacci numbers. Both can be counted on the fingers of one hand, assuming your hand has five fingers. A wide-angle view does not really distinguish between the two symbols. For that, you need the close-up view.
This post was inspired by Cyndy's at Mousemusings, which was inspired by Kathy's at Creating Passionate Users.
Categories: armchair musings
Technorati tags: psychology
(Note: The Rest of the Story/Corpus Callosum has moved. Visit the new site here.)
E-mail a link that points to this post:
