Complementary and Alternative Medicine Therapies to Promote Healthy Moods

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2007.09.002Get rights and content

Pediatric mood disorders (unipolar depression and bipolar disorder) are serious, common, persistent, and recurrent medical conditions. Depression is the second leading cause of illness and disability among young people worldwide. A healthy lifestyle and healthy environment are the cornerstones for promoting positive moods. In addition, several complementary therapies, including nutritional supplements, herbs, mind-body therapies, massage, and acupuncture can be helpful. The focus of this article is the fundamental lifestyle approaches and complementary therapies that enhance mental health in young people. Various resources are available to clinicians to help patients and families promote mental health.

Section snippets

Health: physical and mental

Mental health is closely tied to physical health. A successful athlete exhibits strength, flexibility, endurance, coordination, focus, resilience, teamwork, and sport-specific skills. Similarly, a mentally healthy person exhibits confidence, courage, cheerfulness, coping abilities, hardiness, and focused attention. It's not that the fit athlete never stumbles or that he/she always hits a home run, but that, barring a catastrophe, he/she can get up and try again. Similarly, a mentally healthy

Lifestyle essentials: the fundamentals for healthy moods

Successful athletic coaches emphasize the fundamental skills of their sport. When it comes to mental and physical health, the fundamentals are excellent nutrition (including avoiding toxic ingestions and inhalations while optimizing the intake of essential nutrients); exercise balanced with restful sleep; a healthy environment (such as plenty of sunshine; mood-boosting music; minimal environmental and psychosocial toxins; and supportive family, friends, and community); and mind–body therapies

Biochemical therapies

Because of our individual uniqueness (genomic variability), diet, and environment, some individuals require additional nutrients or benefit from specific biochemical therapies to achieve healthy moods. For example, simple nucleotide polymorphisms represent a significant factor in biochemical individuality. The enzyme delta-5-desaturase converts omega-3 fatty acids such as alpha linolenic acid into eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). If a simple nucleotide polymorphism

Biomechanical therapies: massage

Massage is used widely to improve mood. In fact, therapeutic massage struggles to overcome an historical connection with the “entertainment” industry. Despite its marketing problems, massage has many medical uses. Therapeutic massage contributes to increased blood flow and lymphatic drainage; muscle relaxation; stress reduction; and social support. Physiologically, massage balances right and left prefrontal cortex activity in those with right dominance [143]. The left prefrontal cortex has been

Bioenergetic therapies: acupuncture

Acupuncture involves the stimulation (using pressure, heat, needles, and magnets) of specific points on the body, with the intention of promoting healing. RCTs suggest that acupuncture has significant benefits for depressed adults and may be comparable in effectiveness to prescription antidepressant medications [151]. For example, in an RCT of true acupuncture, sham acupuncture, and massage provided to 61 pregnant women with major depressive disorder, response rates were statistically

Resources

Research in this area is growing constantly. It is helpful to have a list of resources to address common questions and concerns and to keep abreast of emerging knowledge about the safety and effectiveness of therapies and approaches to promote healthy moods. See Appendix 1.

Summary

Depression is the second-leading cause of illness and disability among young people worldwide. A healthy lifestyle and healthy environment are the cornerstones for promoting positive moods. In addition, several complementary therapies, including nutritional supplements, herbs, mind–body therapies, massage, and acupuncture can be helpful. Various resources are available to clinicians to help patients and families promote mental health.

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    Dr. Kemper is supported in part by the Kohlberg Foundation, by NIH NCCAM K24 AT002207 and NIH NCAM R21 AT001901, and by the Caryl Guth Fund for Holistic and Integrative Medicine. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Kohlberg Foundation, the NIH, or Dr. Guth.

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