Complementary and Alternative Medicine for PTSD
- Use of CAM is widespread for the management of mental health problems, including PTSD.
- Broadly conceptualized, "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) refers to treatments not considered to be standard in the current practice of Western medicine
- The more frequently studied complementary and alternative therapies are meditation, acupuncture, yoga, and biofeedback. Less studied therapies include animal-assisted therapy, mantram repetition, and music therapy. The former studies are being conducted in a variety of PTSD populations, including veterans, and they are being evaluated in combination with treatment as usual. We incorporate the following into our programs:
- yoga
- acupuncture
- massage
- biofeedback (HeartMath)
- EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing)
- feldenkrais
- cryotherapy
- reiki energy healing
- sound therapy
- music therapy
- art therapy
- sweat lodge ceremony
- equine therapy
- meditation / mindfulness
- yoga
- The study of psychobiotics (for example, gut microbiota) is a new field of medicine that is relevant to stress and related psychological disorders. Some researchers have suggested that preclinical and clinical studies of psychobiotics could inform treatment for stress-related conditions (Burnet and Cowen, 2013; Dinan et al., 2013). We incorporate a Nutrition class to emphasize the role of the microbiome in mental health.