ABSTRACT
The field of medicine has been going through a marked transition in recent years as increasing numbers of medical practitioners acknowledge and respond to the close relationship between the mind and body. This transition began somewhat reluctantly at first, simply because Western medicine had historically defined itself as a vehicle of treatment only for the physical body. Doctors were far more focused on the “broken hip in Room 205” than the person attached to that hip. However, the rapidly accumulating and irrefutable evidence made it clear that treating only the body was a misguided attempt to separate the essence of the person, including his or her mind and spirit, from the body. This separation proved potentially harmful, reducing the effectiveness of physical treatments or preventing them from working altogether. Research across many scientific disciplines has made it abundantly clear that virtually every problem, even those that seem “purely medical,” are influenced by patients’ mood and beliefs, which have measurable effects on both the course and prognosis of their condition. Thus, mind-body medicine was born and is now in its infancy. Behavioral medicine, defined as “an interdisciplinary field that uses the concepts and techniques of the behavioral sciences to
improve physical and emotional health” (Dictionary.com, retrieved May 30, 2011) has become mainstream as integrative medicine centers become increasingly common across the United States and around the world.
