Alternative Asthma Treatments-Psychological Management

There is no doubt that the mental and emotional state of a person can influence health. In the 1940s through the 1970s, there was widespread interest in the mind-body relationship. Elaborate programs were designed to produce better adjustment of the patient to his or her social environment. The outcome sought was better understanding of the relationship of mind to body and how this was influenced by the social milieu. Some progress was made in management of some diseases in this manner.

In this period, it was fashionable to consider asthma as a psychosomatic illness and to offer psychological counseling or psychotherapy as a treatment. Some practitioners went so far as to liken wheezing to the cry of an infant for its mother. But with large-scale improvement in methods of managing physical health, interest in psychosomatics waned. These days, although it is understood that emotional state has an influence on asthma, there is much less acceptance of psychological problems as a cause for asthma. Although counseling is now considered important, it is only part of any management program.