Modes of Embodiment in Breast Cancer Patients Using Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Abstract

3 AbstractBreast cancer patients are frequent users of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). They often have complex reasons for, and experiences from, their use of CAM.Bodily experiences are important and almost unexplored elements in CAM use. Our aim was to explore the meaning and importance of bodily experiences among breast cancer patients who were using CAM as a supplement or an alternative to conventional treatment (CT). Our findings based on qualitative interviews with 13 women suggest that bodily experiences were particularly important when positioned outside conventional health care prior to medical diagnosis and as user of CAM as alternative to CT. We introduce three central modes of embodiment related to CAM use: the right to one"s body, the body used as a gauge, and the body used as a guide. Patients" positioning between treatment systems should be further explored from a bodily perspective to safeguard and optimize patients" treatment choices. Keywordscancer, breast; embodiment/bodily experiences; health care, alternative and complementary; illness and disease, experiences; knowledge construction; safety, patient 4The most common cancer worldwide is breast cancer, representing 16% of all cancer diagnoses in women (World Health Organization, 2008). Breast cancer patients experience many physical and psycho-social challenges during their breast cancer continuum (Arman, Rehnsfeldt, Lindholm, Hamrin, & Eriksson, 2004;Bredin, 1999;Carter, 1993;Thomas-MacLean, 2004), and an increasing number of breast cancer patients in Western countries choose to use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to strengthen their health and well-being (Boon, Olatunde, & Zick, 2007;Kremser et al., 2008; Lengacher et al., 2002;Molassiotis et al., 2006;Nahleh & Tabbara, 2003). An international review revealed that the prevalence of CAM use varied between 63 % and 83 % among breast cancer patients using at least one type of CAM (Di Gianni et al., 2002).There is, however, a great variation in these rates, depending on the definition of CAM used in each study, the setting of the study and the sample size.In this article we will describe use of CAM among breast cancer patients in a Norwegian and Danish health care context. In these countries, breast cancer counted for 23% (Cancer Registry of Norway, 2009) No applicable official definition of CAM exists in Denmark, but the situation is quite similar to Norway. CAM in a Danish context can be defined as therapies that go beyond the treatments offered by the state-financed health system (Baarts & Pedersen, 2009). In general, the prevalence of CAM use in Scandinavia is higher among women, individuals with higher education, and people with poor self-reported health (Hanssen et al., 2005).In Denmark, patients with breast and gynecological cancer seem to be more likely to seek CAM treatments than patients with all other types of cancer (Kimby, Launsø, Henningsen, & Langgaard, 2003), and breast cancer patients using CAM seem to be healthier and more likely to hav...

Mind the Gap! Lay and Medical Perceptions of Risks Associated with the Use of Alternative Treatment and Conventional Medicine

“…Patients' negative attitudes toward conventional medicine can be linked to adverse effects of treatments, lack of conventional treatment options for a particular medical problem, or lack of trust in conventional care [17-19, 24, 28-30]. CAM users seem to base their treatment decisions on lay constructions of a therapeutic pluralism that includes both scientific medical knowledge and embodied and experience-based knowledge [7,17,[28][29][30]. Thus, there may be unexplored gaps between CAM users' and doctors' perceptions of risk.…”

Embodied health practices: The use of Traditional Healing and Conventional Medicine in a North Norwegian Community

“…Another important empirical pattern is differing understandings of illness in different contexts. Thus, in the following theoretically based analysis, we will draw on theories of sense-making and illness (Antonovsky, 1987;trust (Rowe & Calnan, 2006;Scambler & Britten, 2001) and embodiment (Csordas, 1990;1999a;1999b;Grøn, 2004;Salamonsen et al, 2012).…”

“…The body is perceived as a "body self", i.e. body and mind are mutually connected in a dialectical relationship (Csordas, 1999a;Salamonsen et al, 2012).…”

“…The Norwegian conventional health care system can be perceived as a context of patients' use of traditional healing as well as their use of CAM, as the participants in this study who relate to traditional healers at the same time also receive treatment within the conventional health care system and thus relate to biomedical knowledge (Salamonsen et al, 2012;Salamonsen, 2013). The content and meaning of this combined use of non-conventional and conventional health practices is an interesting and so far under-explored issue of contemporary health practices.…”

CFE-/ME-pasienters ulike erfaringer med Lightning Process

“…Dette er også påpekt i nyere medisinsk forskningslitteratur (20). Forskning på alternative behandlingsformer viser at pasienter anser positive kroppslige erfaringer som et viktig element i evaluering og valg av behandling (21).…”