Teaching midwives to poke with needles on non-existing meridians

Complementary medicine in psychology practice: an analysis of Australian psychology guidelines and a comparison with other psychology associations from English speaking countries

Background

Psychologists, and their clients, are engaging with complementary medicine (CM). Increasing evidence for CM approaches, such as improved nutrition and St John’s wort, has led to their inclusion in the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Psychiatrists clinical practice guidelines for mood disorders. This research aims to determine in what ways, and to what extent, Australian psychology regulatory bodies and associations consider CM relevant to psychology practice. Specifically, how these regulatory bodies and professional association’s ethical and practice guidelines engage with CM.

Methods

Documents from Australian regulatory bodies and professional associations, that relate to the governance or guidance of psychologists’ clinical practice, were systematically searched for key terms relating to CM.

Results

There were no direct references to CM in the 58 ethical and practice guidelines reviewed. There was also no reference to the relevance of CM to ethnocultural groups, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditional healing practices.

Conclusion

While other mental health care disciplines are working toward integrating CM, the discipline of psychology in Australia is not currently engaged in such developments. Given the exponential rise of CM use amongst those with mental health problems, psychology associations should consider developing resources and guidelines to assist psychologists in navigating CM in relation to clinical practice to help minimise risks, such as patient safety associated with concurrent CM use.

Difference in the metabolic characteristics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients and healthy adults

INTRODUCTION

By detecting the metabolic difference of the Heart and Lung meridians, the present study aims to investigate the specificity of different meridians and verify whether functional near infrared spectroscopy is validated as an add-on technique to assist diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

The Lung and Heart meridians are chosen as the target for comparison; accordingly, 120 eligible participants will be included and divided into the COPD group, healthy control group, and healthy intervention group. Functional near infrared spectroscopy will be adopted to measure the metabolic characteristics of the Heart and Lung meridians. On one hand, the specificity of the meridian-visceral association will be investigated by comparing the metabolic difference in the Heart and Lung meridians between the healthy control group and COPD group. On the other hand, the specificity of site-to-site association will be determined by comparing the metabolic change between the 2 meridians that induced by moxibustion in the Heart meridian and Lung meridian, respectively, in the healthy control group. The primary outcome will be regional oxygen saturation of corresponding regions along the Heart and Lung meridians.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04046666.