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-- In a ten-year follow-up study of women found to have breast cancer, those who received psychotherapy in groups survived on average nearly twice as long as similar women who did not. "Frankly, I didn't expect any major effect on the course of the disease," says Dr. David Spiegel, who conducted the survey at Stanford University.
-- A study by Dr. Dean Ornish of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, Calif., has provided evidence that a mind-body program of group meetings, exercise, a low-fat diet and stress-management techniques like meditation can be effective in reversing even severe coronary-artery blockage after only a year. "To the degree heart disease can be reversed, it can be prevented," says Dr. Ornish.
-- In a joint British-American study, more than 1,000 people have subjected themselves to a common cold virus in the most comprehensive such investigation ever undertaken. The objective: to see how accurately researchers can predict who will get sick based on a psychological profile and measurements of immune function before infection. "Assuming that stress puts people at higher risk," asks Sheldon Cohen, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, "will people who have social support in confronting stresses be protected ((from contracting disease))?" The results are being analyzed.
Even some conservative bastions of the medical establishment have become interested in mind-body therapies as an adjunct to conventional care. The American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs gingerly explored this heretofore off-limits topic at a meeting last week. Leading medical schools, such as those at Harvard and UCLA, are including mind-body research in their course offerings.
Some doctors urge patients to supplement routine medical care with mind- enhancing therapies. Last year for the first time more of the patients at the New England Deaconess Hospital's Mind-Body Clinic had been referred there by doctors than by friends and family. At the clinic, patients learn in groups how to achieve Dr. Herbert Benson's relaxation response, a physical state of deep rest. Nearly 80% of hypertension patients lower their blood pressure and require less medication; cancer patients report less nausea during chemotherapy. "Does it prolong life?" asks Dr. Benson. "We don't know. Some people promise that, but I think they are jumping the gun."
Many physicians still deride mind-body therapies as something akin to quackery. Some fear that patients may abandon standard treatment to try unproved therapies. Doctors are also concerned that patients may blame themselves for not being able to control illness. "It is enough to have a diagnosis of cancer," says Dr. Jimmie Holland, chief of psychiatry at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. "It is too much to be told you caused the damn thing."
But proponents of mind-body therapies believe they should be a component of standard medical care. Though they may not cure the illness, they can improve a person's quality of life -- and that just might alter the disease. "Physicians walk a very fine line between promising more than we know and destroying a person's hope," says Sandra Levy, a psychologist at the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. "We know mental health helps. Currently, we cannot go beyond that."