Class of 2013 Abstract / Specific Aims: To evaluate three complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), tai-chi, acupuncture, and melatonin, for treating insomnia using meta-analysis assessment of randomized controlled trials. Methods: The electronic database MEDLINE (PubMed) was searched from May of 2012 to November of 2012 by using the terms “sleep initiation and maintenance disorders” AND “tai-chi” OR “melatonin” OR “acupuncture”. All of the searches ended at November of 2012. Data extraction was conducted independently by 2 investigators and any disagreements were resolved by consensus. If the 2 investigators could not agree, the study was reviewed by all 4 investigators. Main Results: Out of 500 studies that were initially retrieved, 12 studies were included; 3 for tai-chi; 4 for acupuncture; 5 for melatonin. We found that the effect of each type of intervention was significantly different than zero, p<0.01 thus all were effective in treating insomnia. From our analysis, acupuncture was the most effective (standard mean difference, SMD=-0.66; p<0.01) followed by tai-chi (SMD=-0.43; p<0.01) whereas melatonin was the least effective (SMD=-0.26; p=0.04) but difference between acupuncture and melatonin was not significant (p=0.15).       Conclusion: All three interventions were found to be effective in treating insomnia. However, due to mixed and inconsistent data of the studies, poorly designed trials, and small sample size, further large, well-controlled trials are warranted.

This thesis comprises an exploration of the practice of Holistic Massage, working across the sociological areas of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), body work, emotional labour, sociological phenomenology and narrative inquiry. Holistic Massage is one of a plethora of practices encompassed by the field of CAM. While there has been steadily increasing sociological interest in CAM in recent years, much research has treated this diverse group as relatively homogeneous. This thesis looks at one practice in depth, in order to address issues specific to Holistic Massage – including what ‘holism’ adds up in to in practice, and the devaluation of knowledge based on touch(ing) – as well as those concerning CAM more broadly. Hence, whilst drawing on existing research on CAM, this research also addresses a lacuna within it. This thesis employs the conceptual tool of ‘touching work’, which brings together the concepts of ‘emotional labour’ and ‘body work’ in a way that draws out relevant aspects of each around the fulcrum of touch, thus accounting for the latter in both its sensory and emotional meanings. In so doing, it also contributes to the recently burgeoning literature on the senses in sociology, and to an embodied sociology more generally. The thesis also draws on sociological phenomenology, in particular the notion of the intersubjective ‘stock of knowledge’, and the understanding of talk as constitutive of the everyday social world. The overall methodological approach taken brings together phenomenological theory with narrative inquiry, and specifically with the analysis of the form and content of talk. The analysis presented is based around data from loosely-structured interviews with ten women who do Holistic Massage. The interviews were analysed in terms of their overall shape and distinctive features (Chapter Three) and, in subsequent chapters, with respect to both what was said and how it was said. This analysis examines the constitution of a Holistic Massage stock of knowledge (Chapter Four) and how the practice is bounded (Chapter Five), and concludes in Chapter Six by taking a step back from the detail of the data to look at what can be known from it about Holistic Massage and touching work Piecing together the constitution by practitioners of a stock of professional Holistic Massage knowledge makes a significant contribution to the sociology of CAM. Also, by uniting phenomenological sociology and narrative inquiry, it provides a novel perspective on a form of work which is part of a small but significant contemporary occupational field in the UK. In particular, it draws out the multiple aspects of touch which can in fact be known and articulated through talk and challenges ideas about the supposedly ineffable character of touch. In this regard, it points to similarities between how practitioners talk about this and the Foucauldian challenge to the ‘repressive hypothesis’, which sees people as in fact talking readily and in detail about matters where they claim silence prevails.

Cette étude porte sur le mouvement non conventionnel en oncologie et tend à évaluer l’impact des MCA conjointement en termes de bénéfices, de risques et de dérives chez les patients atteints de cancer. Notre démarche comparative explore le vécu de 32 patients utilisant ou non les MCA, de façon complémentaire ou alternative aux traitements curatifs. Un entretien semi-directif unique a été mené auprès de chaque patient dans l’objectif d’identifier les processus communs et distincts entre les différents groupes. Un livret de questionnaire leur a également été remis afin de rendre compte des caractéristiques du mouvement hétérodoxe. L’analyse du discours révèle que le recours aux MCA influence positivement le vécu de la maladie sur l’ensemble des dimensions de la personne, mais détériore la représentation de la médecine allopathique et la relation soignant/soigné. Le refus de traitements curatifs chez les utilisateurs de MCA est lié à un univers de croyances invalidantes qu’ils développent. L’analyse des échelles suggère que le recours aux MCA améliore la perception de la santé globale, réduit la symptomatologie dépressive, mais reste sans effet sur l’anxiété. Le recours alternatif aux MCA est lié aux croyances d’attribution causale interne et de contrôle religieux, mais pas à celle d’un contrôle sur l’évolution de la maladie. L’intégration des MCA en oncologie apparaît pertinente et nécessaire pour améliorer la prise en charge des malades, mais doit pouvoir se déployer avec prudence et de façon progressive au regard des risques et des dérives de certaines pratiques hétérodoxes. / This study examines the unconventional movement in Oncology and aim to assess the impact of CAM jointly in terms of benefits, of risks and derivatives in patients with cancer.Our comparative approach explores the experience of 32 patients using or not the CAM of complementary or alternative to curative treatments. A unique semi directive interview was conducted with each patient in order to identify common and distinct processes between differents groups. A questionnaire booklet was also been handed them to end to account characteristics of the unconventional movement.Analysis of the speech shows that the use of CAM affects positively the experience of the illness across the dimensions of the person, but deteriorates the representation of allopathic medicine and the patient-caregiver relationship. The refusal of curative treatments among users of CAM is linked to a universe of disabling beliefs they develop.The analysis of scales suggests that the use of CAM improves the perception of global health, reduces the depressive symptomatology, but has no effect on anxiety. The alternative use of CAM is related to internal causal attribution and control beliefs, but not to control over the course of the disease. The integration of CAM in oncology appears relevant and necessary to improve the care of patients, but should be able to be deployed with caution and progressively in the light of the risks and derivatives of certain heterodox practices.

A la croisée de l’anthropologie de la maladie et de l’anthropologie de la santé, cette thèse explore la diversité des savoirs et des pratiques de soins dédiés à la prévention ainsi qu’au traitement des problèmes de santé considérés comme spécifiquement féminins en France rurale. L’ethnographie a été menée sur la presqu’île du Médoc, territoire où l’imaginaire lié à la nature fait naître des représentations sur la population entre fantasmes et stigmates, et où se pose régulièrement la question de la désertification médicale, à l’instar d’autres campagnes françaises. Dans ce contexte, des observations et des entretiens qualitatifs ont été réalisés auprès d’une soixantaine de femmes et d’une quarantaine d’acteurs du soin aux profils variés, afin de dessiner les contours et les dynamiques du pluralisme thérapeutique local consacré aux « maux de femmes ». Cette catégorie opératoire regroupe l’ensemble des malaises, mal-être et maladies, souvent sensibles et tabous, qui m’ont été confiés par mes interlocutrices. La thèse éclaire les diverses logiques de recours aux soins qu’elles développent au cours de ces itinéraires thérapeutiques particuliers, constitués de soins biomédicaux, spécialisés ou non dans le domaine de la « santé sexuelle et reproductive », de soins non conventionnels et de soins domestiques. La réflexion globale porte sur la complémentarité des soins façonnée par les usagères du pluralisme thérapeutique au fil de leurs quêtes de soins efficaces, en même temps qu’elle questionne les quêtes de soi suscitées chez les femmes selon que les soins normalisent ou non leurs conduites, les rendent ou non actrices de leur santé, ou qu’ils réifient ou réinventent les normes de genre. / This thesis in medical anthropology explores the diversity of knowledge and care practices dedicated to prevention and treatment of health problems considered as specifically feminine in rural France. The ethnography was conducted in the Medoc peninsula, an area where nature related imaginary leads to representations between fantasy and stigmas from the local population. It is also an area discussed for its medical desertification alike other French rural areas. In this context, observations and qualitative interviews were conducted with about sixty women and forty care actors with various profiles in order to understand and present the contours and dynamics of local therapeutic pluralism dedicated to “women health issues”. This operational category stands for all illness, sickness and diseases, often sensitive, taboo and revealed to me in confidence. This thesis enlightens women’s diverse uses of healthcare in their singular therapeutic itineraries, made of biomedical care, specialized or not in the sexual and reproductive health sector, of non-conventional or alternative medicines and of domestic cares. The overall reflection addresses the complementarity of treatments developed by users of therapeutic pluralism in their quest for health, and questions women’s personal quest according to the way treatments normalize or not their practices, make them actor of their own health or not, or re-invent or re-conduct gender norms.