Report on the Use of Alternative Medicine for Mental Conditions Issued by Yale Researchers

Yale School of Medicine
Friday, 14 July 2000

People with mental conditions are 25 percent more likely to use alternative or complementary treatments than those without such disorders, a Yale research team has found.

And among those who used alternative treatments for mental conditions, herbal remedies were the most commonly used.

"The results suggest that a substantial portion of patients with mental conditions use these therapies, whether to treat mental or other medical conditions," said Benjamin Druss, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, the study's lead author.

Published in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, the findings, Druss said, speak to the potential importance of screening for these treatments in mental health settings.

"Many of these treatments may interact with prescription psychiatric medicines," said Druss. "Furthermore, fewer than one-quarter of people with mental conditions using such treatments had informed a physician about that use."

Results were based on over 16,000 responses to the 1996 medical expenditure panel survey. Researchers found that 9.8 percent of those reporting a mental condition made a visit to a complementary or alternative practitioner and about half of these people (4.5 percent) made a visit to treat the mental condition.

Druss said after adjusting for differences between the groups, individuals with mental conditions were 25 percent more likely to use these treatments than those without such disorders. However, such treatments were generally used for transient distress such as anxiety over a family or work situation, rather than to treat serious mental conditions such as schizophrenia.

Alternative or complementary medicine included acupuncture, nutritional advice, massage therapy, herbal remedies, meditation, imagery, relaxation techniques, spiritual healing or prayer, hypnosis and homeopathic treatment.

"More research using structured diagnostic interviews is needed to examine the prevalence, patterns and clinical implications of use of these treatments by individuals with mental conditions in 'real world' community settings," Druss said.

There has been a rapid growth of interest in complementary medicine on the part of consumers, health care purchasers and the media, Druss said, but scientific literature has only recently begun to publish data on the efficacy, safety and patterns of use for these treatments. This survey is one of the first.

Druss's research team included Robert Rosenheck, professor of psychiatry and lecturer in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale School of Medicine. Druss is currently funded on a career award through the National Institute of Mental Health.

For more information, or to contact Yale School of Medicine, see their website at: info.med.yale.edu/ysm/