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Thesis (D. Min.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-168).

D.Litt. et Phil. / Encopresis is a complex problem which is often under-reported, and is not well known by the general public. The humiliating nature of the problem results in denial and a reluctance to seek help from professionals; parents will therefore rather attempt to solve the problem themselves. Research on the subject is relatively scarce, especially regarding effectiveness of treatment models. The etiological factors of this complex problem are interlinked and it is often difficult to identify the primary cause of the problem. A primarily physical problem may have secondary emotional implications, while a primarily emotional problem may result in a physical problem. The complex nature of encopresis results in referrals from one professional to the other, generally without great success; this has resulted in parents often becoming desperate to get effective help. Treatment in the past tended to be profession-orientated and fell either into a medical or a psychological approach, with little, if any, acknowledgement of the social factors. Only recently has the biopsychosocial approach been recognised and received more credit. The low success rate in the treatment of encopresis gave rise to the development of a holistic approach which attempts to address the problem in the context of the physical, behavioural, cognitive and emotional modalities in order to find appropriate assessment, diagnostic and management strategies. The purpose of the present study was to integrate these modalities and to develop a form of therapy tailored to the specific needs of the child. The holistic treatment model attempts to bring relief to children suffering from encopresis and their families who are burdened with the problem. The purpose was further to evaluate the effectiveness of the holistic treatment model with regard to the prevalence of encopresis, depressive symptomatology, parental involvement and self-image of the children. Standardised measuring instruments used were the "Reynolds Child Depression Scale", the "Bene Anthony Family Relations Test", as well as the "Human Figure Drawings". Experimental and control groups were used in order to compare the variables prior to any intervention. The experimental group received treatment while the control group received treatment only after completion of the post-tests. The purpose was to measure the degree of change as a result of the intervention. The experimental group improved significantly with regard to all the variables, while the control group showed no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test results. The study indicated a relatively high success rate using the holistic treatment approach. Promising results can be expected when applying this holistic form of treatment to other children with similar problems in an endeavour to alleviate the often silent burden carried by children with encopresis and by their families.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Chiropractic, Technikon Natal, 1997. / This study was done in order to compare the effectiveness of chiropractic treatment in association with a wellness approach, to chiropractic treatment without a wellness approach in the management of Mechanical Low Back Pain. Low back pain is an enormous problem in today's society. Vast amounts of money are spent annually on the investigation into and treatment of low back pain, and numerous work days are lost due to absenteeism. Chronic low back pain also affects the individual's life\xB7style, and can lead to psychological problems. Thousands of low back operations are done yearly, with a significantly high failure rate. (Frymoyer et al. 1980.) In this study factors such as cost, recovery tine and incidence of reoccurrence were used as criteria to determine the effectiveness of chiropractic treatment applied to the two groups of patients. The concept of holise was applied to one group, whereas the other group was treated without this approach. The study was conducted as a clinical trial, with two experimental groups. Thirty patients who had responded to an advertiselOent were selected and randomly divided into two groups. The patients were selected fro~ the general population on the grounds of their signs and sylllptoos. Group A received chiropractic treatment in association with the wellness approach. This comprised patient education in the form of guidance towards life-style changes and exercises. Patients were also given a detailed explanation of their problems, leading to an understanding of their conditions. Group B received chiropractic treatment only. Their condition was not explained, and they did not receive any of the holistic aspectts mentioned for group A. / M

This thesis investigates the moral content of illness ontologies in different healing systems, in particular biomedicine and homeopathy. It was motivated by the wish to gain a greater understanding of the possible meaning and ethical significance underlying the increasing popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Western countries. CAM is an umbrella term for a diverse group of therapeutic approaches, indicating their marginalized status in relation to conventional, scientific medicine. However, despite their diversity most CAM share a common bond by subscribing to a holistic perspective on life, health and illness. It is for this reason that this thesis concentrates on the conceptual level. The subject is approached by making use of interview material from five homeopathic doctors from Austria. Their perspective on different aspects of non-conventional, as well as biomedical, practice and underlying theory provides the springboard for theoretical investigations. The demand for scientific evidence of CAM is critically examined. The issue of increasing pluralism in health care is explored, along with its challenge of finding appropriate epistemological approaches for therapeutic systems that are based on different illness ontologies. The favored approach in this thesis is based on the recognition by medical historians that there are four basic illness axioms: "illness as loss of balance", "illness as disruption of interpersonal communication", "illness as a physical defect" and "illness as pathic creation". These axioms are matched respectively with four different epistemic pathways: the dialectical, the hermeneutical, the analytical and the phenomenological. The interviewees considered the more humane quality of the doctor/patient relationship in their homeopathic practices to be due to the holistic premises of homeopathy, which place the subjective dimension of patients at their center. The difficulty of achieving informed consent in the commonly used sense in homeopathic practice was solved by engaging in a shared decision-making process. Life was explained by the interviewees in vitalistic terms. Although rejected by science, the notion of vitalism appears to hold significance for the public. Illness was always perceived as a multidimensional process and not as a purely physico-chemical dysfunction. It became evident that the holistic perspective takes account of the many dimensions of human illness, of which neither the conventional reductionist conception nor the dualistic mind/body approach are capable. However, the unmanageable complexity of holism poses a problem for therapeutic practice. A conceptual approach providing some structure for the holistic multidimensionality is found in the four illness axioms and in analogous observations by Aristotle. It is concluded that there could be a connection between the increased popularity of CAM and their underlying holistic perspective, since this theoretical foundation allows the practitioner to address the patient in a whole-person way. At the same time the holistic perspective provides a much broader scope than biomedicine for patients to influence their health. The recognition that human multidimensionality needs to be appreciated at the level of illness ontology may also provide an impetus for bioethics to approach contemporary ethical challenges from a perspective of an ethics of the good life, instead of concerning itself predominantly with setting limits in the arena of technological medicine.

Thesis (doctoral)--South Bank Polytechnic, 1990. / BLDSC reference no.: DX94587.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 309-317).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-114).

Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) training during residency is essential for development of these unique skills and principles as we go out into our future careers. One of the challenges that we have faced over the course of our residency tenure is having on-hand and online OMT resources to further promote learning and retention of knowledge and skills. The purpose of this research project was to gauge the family medicine residents’ OMT fundamental knowledge while also providing a designated preceptor area location for OMT resources for quick access, when needed, during our OMT clinic. At the same time, the residents were also lectured on common musculoskeletal dysfunctions and simple techniques that could be used for quick treatment options during clinic. First, the family medicine residents were first given a 10 question OMT pre-survey (five questions were knowledge based and five questions were short answer) to gauge their baseline fundamental osteopathic clinical knowledge and their knowledge about the pre-existing OMT resources and their locations in our clinic. After the residents completed the OMT pre-survey, the new OMT resources were placed in the new location in our precepting area and then two weeks later the residents were given a lecture about the fundamentals and common contraindications of OMT and the basic approaches to treatment of some routine chronic conditions, including low back pain, neck pain, headaches, and migraines. Also, included at then end of the lecture was the newly acquired OMT resources, including books and online website links, that were compiled for the clinic, and the new designated spot for these materials making them easily accessible during our OMT clinics. The OMT post survey, using the same one as above, was then done by the residents to see the impact on their OMT fundamentals and OMT resource knowledge. The Results from the pre and post surveys were then compared, and the data was graphed accordingly to show the changes. Questions one through five were graded on having “correct” vs “incorrect” answers, and the short answer questions (6-10) were graded on the premise of “positive” vs “negative” answers. Answers were considered positive if they were optimistic, which includes the response “yes”, accurate location in the precepting area, any form of OMT resource, or any amount of time spent in learning, review, or preparations of OMT material for OMT clinics. Answers were considered negative if they were the opposite of the above description. The first eight questions showed a strong positive increase/improvement in the residents’ OMT knowledge and showed that they know the new resources and their location in the clinic, which was the purpose of our project. The last two questions had slightly different outcomes than expected which was addressed if similar research is done in the future.

Discusses the published work of Rudolf Dreikurs namely, books, articles, audiotapes, and videotapes, however specifically focusing on his book `Holistic Medicine.' What were the views of the contribution made by Dreikurs through his work.