Abstract
Objective
To compare the quality of life (QOL) in patients with and without mental and behavioral disorders wanting to receive kampo, a type of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), we investigated the QOL of patients using the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Scale (WHOQOL-BREF).
Methods
Seven hundred and twenty-nine outpatients with various diseases or disorders wanting to receive kampo therapy were recruited in the study. Two hundred and ninety-four patients (F-group) had mental or behavioral disorders. For these 729 patients, QOL was rated on the WHOQOL-BREF Japanese version.
Results
The average WHOQOL-BREF score of F-group (2.93 ± .54) was significantly lower than that of controls (3.23 ± .53). Especially, the average WHOQOL-BREF score of the 135 patients who had already been treated with modern medicines and wanted to be treated with kampo formulas to augment modern medicines (2.77 ± .55) was significantly lower than that of other patients.
Conclusion
QOL in patients with mental and behavioral disorders wanting to be treated with kampo who had already been treated with modern medicines was lower than that in patients with general medical conditions or with mental or behavioral disorders not treated with modern medicine.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Astin, J. A. (1998). Why patients use alternative medicine: Results of a national study. Journal of American Medical Association, 279, 1548–1553.
Burstein, H. J., Gelber, S., & Guadagnoli, E. et al. (1999). Use of alternative medicine by women with early-stage breast cancer. New England Journal of Medicine, 340, 1733–1739.
Eisenburg, D. M., Davis, R. B., & Ettner, S. L. et al. (1998). Trends in alternative medicine use in the United States, 1990–1997: Results of a follow-up national survey. Journal of American Medical Association, 280, 1569–1575.
Ernst, E. (2000). Prevalence of use of complementary/alternative medicine: A systematic review. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 78, 252–257.
Kanba, S., Yamada, K., & Mizushima, H. et al. (1999). Use of herbal medicine for treating psychiatric disorders in Japan. In S. Kanba & E. Richelson (Eds.), Herbal medicine for neuropsychiatric diseases (pp. 3–13). New York: Seiwa Shoten/Brunner-Mazel.
Mizushima, H., & Kanba, S. (1999). The use of Japanese herbal medicine in the treatment of medically unexplained physical symptoms. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 46, 531–535.
Nakane, Y., Tazaki, M., & Miyaoka, E. (1999). WHOQOL-BREF survey of general population. Iryo-to-Shakai, 9, 123–131 (in Japanese).
Rickhi, B., Quan, H., & Moritz, S. et al. (2003). Mental disorders and reasons for using complementary therapy. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 48, 475–479.
Saxena, S., Carlson, D., & Billington, R. et al. (2001). The WHO quality of life assessment instrument (WHOQOL-Bref): The importance of its items for cross-cultural research. Quality of Life Research, 10, 711–721.
Terasawa, K. (1993). Kampo, Japanese oriental medicine. Tokyo: KK Standard McIntyre.
The WHOQOL Group. (1998). Development of the World Health Organization WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment. Psychological Medicine, 28, 551–558.
The WHOQOL Group. The World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHO-QOL). (1998). Development and general psychometric properties. WHO/MNH/PSF/97.4. Geneva: WHO.
Wang, J. L., Patten, S. B., & Russell, M. L. (2001). Alternative medicine use by individuals with major depression. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 46, 528–533.
Yamada, K., Den, R., & Ohnishi, K. et al. (2005). Effectiveness of herbal medicine (kampo) and changes of quality of life in patients with somatoform disorders. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 25, 199–201.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the research fund of the Institute of Kampo Medicine and Tsumura & Co., Tokyo, Japan. The authors thank Dr. Ryosuke Den, Dr. Motoko Fukuzawa, Dr. Masahiro Asai, Dr. Bokuso Terashi, Dr. Kimio Ohnishi and Dr. Shigenobu Kanba for their helpful comments. The authors thank Dr. Takaaki Murata, Dr. Kouichi Ishii, Dr. Tomoko Yorozu, Dr. Yoshihiro Imazu, Dr. Hiroko Mizushima, Dr. Chikayo Chikaraishi and Dr. Masashi Katoh for collecting data.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yamada, K. Low level of quality of life in patients with mental and behavioral disorders wanting complementary and alternative (kampo) therapy. Qual Life Res 16, 787–792 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-007-9179-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-007-9179-3