Comments on: Mozart’s Medical Cabinet - Alternative Mental Health http://brainblogger.com/2006/04/03/roundtable-mozarts-medical-cabinet-alternative-mental-health/ Topics from multidimensional biopsychosocial perspectives. Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:05:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: isabella mori http://brainblogger.com/2006/04/03/roundtable-mozarts-medical-cabinet-alternative-mental-health/#comment-37494 isabella mori Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:35:31 +0000 http://blog.gnif.org/?p=490#comment-37494 the general answer to this, i think, is, "whatever works, works" and its converse, "whatever doesn't work, doesn't work". when you talk to people with any mental health issues, you will find a very wide variety of approaches that have worked for them, and that includes TCM (traditional chinese medicine). so maybe the question could be - what's the FIRST choice of treatment to be tried? of course that depends on a variety of factors, not the least of them what the client thinks would work. when meeting someone whose bipolar symptoms don't seem to quickly go away with psychotherapy, would i immediately suggest that she seek out TCM? probably not. the first reason for that is because i haven't seen anyone who has been helped by it. (which, of course, doesn't prove that it doesn't work - absence of evidence never proves anything). if that client felt that TCM was the right treatment to pursue, i would inform her that from my experience, the next thing to try may be conventional western medication but if she still felt that TCM was the way to go, i would support her in it. and then see what happens. chronic conditions often need a lot of experimenting. the general answer to this, i think, is, “whatever works, works” and its converse, “whatever doesn’t work, doesn’t work”. when you talk to people with any mental health issues, you will find a very wide variety of approaches that have worked for them, and that includes TCM (traditional chinese medicine).

so maybe the question could be - what’s the FIRST choice of treatment to be tried? of course that depends on a variety of factors, not the least of them what the client thinks would work.

when meeting someone whose bipolar symptoms don’t seem to quickly go away with psychotherapy, would i immediately suggest that she seek out TCM? probably not. the first reason for that is because i haven’t seen anyone who has been helped by it. (which, of course, doesn’t prove that it doesn’t work - absence of evidence never proves anything).

if that client felt that TCM was the right treatment to pursue, i would inform her that from my experience, the next thing to try may be conventional western medication but if she still felt that TCM was the way to go, i would support her in it. and then see what happens. chronic conditions often need a lot of experimenting.

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