Patients’ Explanatory Models of Acupuncture: How and Why do They Think it Works?
Item
Title
Patients’ Explanatory Models of Acupuncture: How and Why do They Think it Works?
Description
EJOM (2005), Schroer, Sylvia.
Abstract
This article reports on a small study to investigate how patients explained the workings of acupuncture in the light of their own experience of treatment. 15 patients of different ages and from socio-economic backgrounds were interviewed and issues such as reasons for having treatment, the effects of treatment, and the importance of the therapeutic relationship were discussed to reveal the explanatory models which they used to describe their experiences. One of the findings of the study was that patients’ narratives shifted during the course of treatment from mechanical theories or physical explanations of illness towards theories of equilibrium, of mind-body harmony, and ethical theories, with treatment seen as a cleansing process. The study found that also found that patients themselves, through their experience of treatment, are moving away from a narrow definition of acupuncture as a treatment for the relief of pain or physical symptoms towards a much broader conceptualisation for its therapeutic potential in the context of their lives.
Alternative Title
EJOM
Creator
Date
Date Created
2/24/2015
Language
English
Type
Journal Article
issn
1351-6647
issue
1
volume
5