26 November 2009 at 15:32
People with an eating disorder may not want to attend a support group or meet with therapists, but a new report raises the prospect that "remote therapies" via e-mail, text messaging or through Web sites could help them recover.
In the report, published online Nov. 19 in The Lancet, researchers pointed out that it can be difficult to find treatment. They examined so-called "self-help" interventions and found that with professional oversight, these treatments could help people with bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder, although there's some doubt about the effectiveness of the treatments.
Anorexia nervosa, in which people eat little or nothing, is an exception. For people with that condition, counseling and dietary therapy remain the ideal treatments.
Meditation for breast cancer patients gets nod
Transcendental meditation reduces stress and improves the emotional and mental well-being of breast cancer patients, a new study suggests.
The two-year trial included 130 patients at Saint Joseph Hospital in Chicago, ages 55 and older, randomly assigned to either a transcendental meditation group or to a usual care control group. Quality of life was assessed every six months.
"Emotional and psychosocial stress contribute to the onset and progression of breast cancer and cancer mortality," study author Sanford Nidich, senior researcher at the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Iowa, said in a news release.
"The transcendental meditation technique reduces stress and improves emotional well-being and mental health in older breast cancer patients. The women in the study found their meditation practice easy to do at home and reported significant benefits in their overall quality of life," Nidich added.
"It is wonderful that physicians now have a range of interventions to use, including transcendental meditation," study co-author Dr. Rhoda Pomerantz, chief of gerontology at Saint Joseph Hospital, said in the news release.
The study, published in a recent issue of the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies, received funding from the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Cited from: The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware), November 24, 2009