Barriers to the Entry of Biofield Healing Into "Mainstream" Healthcare.

In this article, we describe barriers to the entry of biofield healing into mainstream contemporary science and clinical practice. We focus on obstacles that arise from the social nature of the scientific enterprise, an aspect of science highlighted by the influential work of Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996), one of the most important- and controversial-philosophers of science in the 20th century. Kuhn analyzed science and its revolutionary changes in terms of the dynamics within scientific communities.

Depressive symptoms and spiritual wellbeing in asymptomatic heart failure patients.

Depression adversely predicts prognosis in individuals with symptomatic heart failure. In some clinical populations, spiritual wellness is considered to be a protective factor against depressive symptoms. This study examined associations among depressive symptoms, spiritual wellbeing, sleep, fatigue, functional capacity, and inflammatory biomarkers in 132 men and women with asymptomatic stage B heart failure (age 66.

The evolution of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the USA over the last 20 years.

Medical practices that reside outside the mainstream medical structures have existed for centuries, often waxing and waning in prominence and use for various reasons. Recently, there has been a resurgence in interest and use of such practices in the USA generally referred to under the label of 'complementary and alternative medicine' (CAM). In this article we summarize some of the highlight events that punctuated this resurgence over the last 20 years.

Spirituality and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: content comparison of questionnaires measuring mindfulness based on the International Classification of Functioning.

Purpose: To identify and compare the concepts contained in questionnaires measuring mindfulness using the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) as external reference.

Method: Questionnaires which are published in peer-reviewed journals and listed in Pubmed or PsycInfo were included. The questionnaires were analysed and, using a content-analytical approach, the respective items were categorised and linked to the ICF.

The ALSSQOL: balancing physical and nonphysical factors in assessing quality of life in ALS.

Background: There is no generally accepted instrument for measuring quality of life (QOL) in patients with ALS. Current instruments are either too heavily weighted toward strength and physical function or useful for the evaluation of individuals but of less utility in assessing large samples.

Objective: To develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of an ALS-specific QOL instrument (the ALSSQOL) that would reflect overall QOL as assessed by the patient and would be valid and reliable across large samples.

Beliefs about asthma and complementary and alternative medicine in low-income inner-city African-American adults.

Background: The gap in asthma prevalence, morbidity, and mortality is increasing in low-income racial/ethnic minority groups as compared with Caucasians. In order to address these disparities,alternative beliefs and behaviors need to be identified.

Objective: To identify causal models of asthma and the context of conventional prescription versus complementary and alternative medicine(CAM) use in low-income African-American (AA) adults with severe asthma.

Sleep paralysis as spiritual experience.

This article presents an overview of the sleep paralysis experience from both a cultural and a historical perspective. The robust, complex phenomenological pattern that represents the subjective experience of sleep paralysis is documented and illustrated. Examples are given showing that, for a majority of subjects, sleep paralysis is taken to be a kind of spiritual experience.

Cardiorespiratory events detected by home memory monitoring and one-year neurodevelopmental outcome.

Objective: To determine if infants with cardiorespiratory events detected by home memory monitoring during early infancy have decreased neurodevelopmental performance.

Study Design: Infants (n = 256) enrolled in the Collaborative Home Infant Monitoring Evaluation also completed the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II at 92 weeks' postconceptional age. Infants were classified as having 0, 1 to 4, or 5+ cardiorespiratory events.

Humanities education at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The Department of Humanities at Pennsylvania State University's (Penn State) College of Medicine, created at the founding of the College in 1967, was the first of its kind at any medical school. This article begins by describing how the department has developed over the years, and then discusses its present configuration, including kinds of faculty appointments, information about how it is funded, specific courses that comprise the department's four-year curriculum, and activities it sponsors. That a College of Medicine would make the teaching and practice of humanistic medicine a major and explicit commitment attracted the notice of Drs.

Ethnic minority use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM): a national probability survey of CAM utilizers.

Context: US research results suggest that some sociodemographic characteristics predict use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Specifically, use of CAM has been positively associated with persons from higher socioeconomic status groups and negatively associated with African-Americans.

Objective: To investigate the sociodemographic characteristics of CAM utilizers in a national probability sample, one containing an over-sampling of ethnic minorities.

Sun protection policies and environmental features in US elementary schools.

Objective: To assess current sun protection policies and the receptiveness to new policies at elementary schools in the United States.

Design: A cross-sectional telephone survey.

Setting: General educational community.

Cardiopulmonary monitoring at home: the CHIME monitor.

A new physiologic monitor for use in the home has been developed and used for the Collaborative Home Infant Monitor Evaluation (CHIME). This monitor measures infant breathing by respiratory inductance plethysmography and transthoracic impedance; infant electrocardiogram, heart rate and R-R interval; haemoglobin O2 saturation of arterial blood at the periphery and sleep position. Monitor signals from a representative sample of 24 subjects from the CHIME database were of sufficient quality to be clinically interpreted 91.

Cardiorespiratory events recorded on home monitors: Comparison of healthy infants with those at increased risk for SIDS.

Context: Home monitors designed to identify cardiorespiratory events are frequently used in infants at increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), but the efficacy of such devices for this use is unproven.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that preterm infants, siblings of infants who died of SIDS, and infants who have experienced an idiopathic, apparent life-threatening event have a greater risk of cardiorespiratory events than healthy term infants.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study conducted from May 1994 through February 1998.

Comparison of apnea identified by respiratory inductance plethysmography with that detected by end-tidal CO(2) or thermistor. The CHIME Study Group.

As part of the Collaborative Home Infant Monitoring Evaluation (CHIME) we compared apnea identified by a customized home monitor using respiratory inductance plethysmography (RIP) with simultaneously recorded polysomnography-acquired nasal end-tidal CO(2) (PET(CO(2))) and nasal/oral thermistor in 422 infants during overnight laboratory recordings to determine concordance between techniques, sources of disagreement, and capacity of RIP to detect obstructed breaths within an apnea. Among 233 episodes of apnea identified by at least one method as >/= 16 s, 120 were observed by the CHIME monitor, 219 by PET(CO(2)), and 163 by thermistor. The positive predictive value of the CHIME-identified apnea was 89.

Folk medicine and health culture in contemporary society.

Folk medicine comprises "unofficial health beliefs and practices" which rely heavily (but not exclusively) on oral transmission. It is one form of alternative medicine, and a major source for many other forms such as phytotherapy and mind/body medicine. While many folk medicine ideas and practices are associated with particular ethnic groups, many others are widely distributed throughout American society.

Evaluation of the Ultraviolet Index: media reactions and public response.

Background: In response to the increasing rate of skin cancer, particularly melanoma in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Weather Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Association of Physicians for the Environment, and the American Academy of Dermatology, developed the Ultraviolet Index (UVI) to inform the public of the strength of the sun's rays and advise on methods for sun protection.

Objective: Our purpose was to evaluate the extent to which television stations and newspapers reported the UVI and assess the public's response to it.

Methods: To evaluate the effect of this effort, we surveyed television weather forecasters at 185 stations and examined weather pages in 54 newspapers in 58 cities that received the UVI reports.