Is a bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach relevant to cancer treatment? A study of patients and oncology staff members on issues of complementary medicine and spirituality.

2006 Jan 1

01/01/2006

PubMed:

Supp Care Cancer 2006;14:147-52.

By Ben-Arye E, Bar-Sela G, Frenkel M, Kuten A, Hermoni D.

Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasingly being used by patients with cancer.

Objectives: Our aim is to compare the attitudes of cancer patients who use CAM to those of nonusers, on issues of CAM, biopsychosocial considerations, and spiritual needs.

Methods: Questionnaires were administered to patients and medical care providers in a tertiary teaching hospital with a comprehensive cancer center.

Results: Forty-nine percent of the study patients reported integrating CAM into their conventional care. Health care providers considered psychological and spiritual needs as major reasons for CAM use, while patients considered the familial-social aspect to be more important.

Conclusions: Cancer patients do not correlate CAM use with spiritual concerns but expect their physicians to attend to spiritual themes. Health care providers involved in oncology cancer care should emphasize spiritual as well as CAM themes. The integration of these themes into a biopsychosocial-spiritual approach may enrich the dialogue between patients and health providers.

More publications on the subject

The cultural context of patient’s autonomy and doctor’s duty: passive euthanasia and advance directives in Germany and Israel

01/11/2010

Abstract The moral discourse surrounding end-of-life (EoL) decisions is highly complex, and a comparison of Germany and Israel can highlight the impact of cultural

Selected issues in palliative care among East Jerusalem Arab residents

01/01/2010

Abstract Understanding of cultural context is important when working with Palestinian patients, particularly in Israeli hospitals. Cultural competence includes individual assessment of communication needs

End-of-life needs as perceived by terminally ill older adult patients, family and staff

01/09/2010

Abstract Purpose of the study: A comparison of inpatient end-of-life needs as perceived by terminally ill older adult patients, family, physicians and nurses, is lacking.

The cultural context of end-of-life ethics: a comparison of Germany and Israel

01/07/2010

No abstract available

Family caregiving to hospitalized end-of-life and acutely ill geriatric patients

01/08/2010

Abstract The article examines family caregiving to hospitalized older adults at the end of life (EOL). The stress stress process model was used to

Blaming the messenger and not the message

01/06/2010

No abstract available