Medicine Buddha: A Transdual Self-model Meditation to Support Healthcare Practitioners

There is increasing awareness of the deleterious effect of the current work demands on a wide range of health professionals and of the benefits of contemplative understandings and practices in modern, secular settings, and healthcare environments. Here, we examine the theory and practice of a traditional Buddhist practice, Medicine Buddha, within a framework of transduality as a way to illuminate and empower core mechanisms of healing to support healthcare practitioners in both self-care and patient care. By fostering appreciation of innate health and connection to others, this practice can support compassion, inspiration, resilience, and joy in life.

The patient's motivation in seeking complementary therapies

The motivations of cancer patients in seeking complementary therapies are, fundamentally, self-healing motivations which, when engaged appropriately, can contribute to the patient's psychological and physical well being. In this paper, we apply a theoretical model, the Risk Adaptation Model, to furthering the clinical understanding of the motivations of cancer patients in seeking complementary therapies. The model identifies six discrete cognitive processes which, in combination, are hypothesized to play a central role in therapy seeking. Emphasis in this model is placed on the patient's need to maintain positive expectancies (optimism) when faced with the risk and uncertainty of cancer. This understanding of complementary-therapy seeking is grounded in the perspective that clinicians must respect the autonomy of cancer patients in their quest for appropriate therapies, and assist rather than direct their process of therapy-seeking.

Assessment of noradrenergic functioning in patients with non-combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder: a study with desmethylimipramine and orthostatic challenges

The functioning of the noradrenergic system was assessed in 16 patients with non-combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the same number of age- and sex-matched healthy subjects by measuring (1) plasma norepinephrine (NE) levels in supine and upright postures, and (2) growth hormone (GH) responses to challenge with desmethylimipramine (DMI), a NE reuptake inhibitor. Subjects were cannulated at 08:30 h after an overnight fast. Blood samples were drawn for NE levels with subjects in a supine position and after 5 min of standing. After subjects were allowed to rest for 30 min in a supine position, a blood sample was drawn for basal GH (T-15) levels. The second baseline sample was drawn 15 min later (T0), at which time DMI (1 mg/kg) was given orally, and further blood samples were drawn at 90, 120, and 180 min. PTSD patients had significantly higher baseline NE levels and blunted NE responsivity to postural challenge compared with normal subjects. Basal and DMI-induced GH levels, on the other hand, did not differ in PTSD versus normal subjects. Overall, these findings suggest that non-combat-related PTSD patients have peripheral noradrenergic dysregulation, but central postsynaptic alpha 2-adrenergic receptor sensitivity is not altered in this patient population.