Browse Integrative Medicine General Articles by Topic

Creating Healing Environments: Band-Aids and Beyond

Because normative messages affecting diversity and inclusion are conveyed by the application of a bandage and its color, healers are called to offer and employ newly available adhesive bandages in a multitude of skin tones.

Childhood Sleep Difficulties and Adolescent Mental Health

This prospective United Kingdom study involving 13,488 children shows an association between specific early childhood sleep problems and symptoms of psychosis in adolescence. Another specified early childhood sleep problem is associated with symptoms of borderline personality disorder in adolescence.

Air Pollution and Cognitive Decline

SYNOPSIS: In this large prospective cohort study of subjects in Manhattan, researchers demonstrated an association between exposure to air pollution and decline in cognitive function over time in one cohort, but not the other.

Mozart Therapy for Epilepsy

A randomized, controlled, crossover trial in adult patients with drug-resistant epilepsy compared listening to a Mozart piano sonata daily to an active control. It showed reduction in seizures during the Mozart treatment compared to both baseline and the control treatment.

Scrambler Therapy for Neuromyelitis Optica Pain Treatment

Scrambler therapy appears to significantly reduce central neuropathic pain for patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, although pain reduction is not shown to be sustained for more than 30 days after treatment.

Aromatherapy Reduces Pain and Other Symptoms

In people with myofascial pain syndrome receiving a trigger point injection, aromatherapy with lavender oil helped to decrease pain and anxiety and improve comfort.

Labor, Pain Management, and Acupuncture: A Cochrane Review

This Cochrane review evaluating acupuncture and acupressure for pain management during labor finds acupuncture may lead to reduced use of pharmacological agents for pain control while acupressure may reduce pain intensity. Higher-quality studies are needed.

Vitamin D and Colon Cancer

A self-report of any vitamin D supplementation is associated with a decrease in colorectal polyps; adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.57 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.33-0.96) in high-latitude conditions. A self report of meeting 600 IU of vitamin D, the recommended daily intake for that region, is associated with a decrease in high-risk adenomatous polyps, with an aOR of 0.78 (95% CI, 0.62-0.99) in high-latitude conditions.

Brief, Targeted Intervention to Stop Smoking

A one-minute intervention giving facts about the health impact of smoking was presented to men waiting to be seen in Hong Kong emergency rooms. At a six-month follow-up, investigators found a significantly higher abstinence rate in the intervention group.

Cannabis for Mental Health Disorders: Follow the Evidence

In a review of 83 eligible studies, researchers found little evidence to support the efficacy of cannabinoids to treat depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, or several other mental health disorders. There is low-grade evidence that pharmaceutical cannabis may help improve symptoms of anxiety in patients with a comorbid medical condition.