June 4, 2011

A few years ago, Mind-Body Therapies (MBT) such as meditation, yoga, and qi gong were considered on the fringe of modern medicine, now they are gradually becoming more common. A recent study published in the May 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, reveals that .one out of every 30 Americans using MBT was referred by a medical provider, a figure representing 6.36 million Americans.

The study was conducted by researchers from Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), who analyzed data from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, which collected information over 23,000 American households. For the study, MBT included yoga, tai chi, qi gong, meditation, guided imagery, progressive muscle relaxation, and deep-breathing.

“There’s good evidence to support using mind-body therapies clinically,” said lead author Aditi Nerurkar, MD, Integrative Medicine Fellow, Harvard Medical School and BIDMC in a press release from BIDMC. “Still, we didn’t expect to see provider referral rates that were quite so high.”

The researchers divided MBT patients into two groups, those who self-referred and those who were referred by a medical provider. Those referred by a medical provider were more likely to be sicker and heavier users of the medical system than those who self-referred.

“What we learned suggests that providers are referring their patients for mind-body therapies as a last resort once conventional therapeutic options have failed. It makes us wonder whether referring patients for these therapies earlier in the treatment process could lead to less use of the health care system, and possibly, better outcomes for these patients,” said Nerurkar in the BIDMC release.

“These data suggest that mind-body therapies have really become a mainstream approach to care,” added Russell Phillips, MD, Chief of Primary Care at BIDMC and the senior author on the study, in the BIDMC release. “But more research is needed to guide physician and patient decision-making regarding their use.”

Source: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Study: Nerurkar, A. et al. “When Conventional Medical Providers Recommend Unconventional Medicine: Results of a National Study” Archives of Internal Medicine 2011;171(9):862-864. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.160.

Dave Gorczynski is president of SPARK, a non-profit organization that has provided free energy work sessions and workshops across New York City since 2002. He writes a regular column about energy work and meditation for the Compact News in New York City's Chinatown. E-mail him at dave@sparkenergy.org.