Biofield therapies and psychoneuroimmunology.

In this issue of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, Lutgendorf et al. (this issue) report on a prospective randomized clinical trial that examined the effects of a biofield therapy (versus relaxation therapy or standard care) on natural killer cell cytotoxicity (NKCC), depression and quality of life in cervical cancer patients receiving chemoradiation. Biofield therapy? This type of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapy includes practices such as Healing Touch, Therapeutic Touch, Qi gong, and Reiki. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) describes biofield therapies as ‘‘intended to affect energy fields that purportedly surround and penetrate the human body” (NCCAM Publication No. D347). Biofield therapies seek to work with the human body’s putative vital energy field, which has been described across cultures as chi, qi, ki, and prana, such that changes in the field interact with and lead to changes in physiology as well as mood. This theory has its roots in traditional medical practices such as Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine. Among all of the CAM modalities, biofield practices are without doubt the most controversial. They do not fit conceptually with the traditional allopathic medical understanding of the human body or with broader Western scientific concepts of physiological and biochemical systems, although there are increasing efforts to understand and describe such interfaces (e.g., Brown, 2009; Tafur et al., 2010). The use of biofield therapies, particularly in cancer patients, has increased significantly in recent years and hence presents a need for more rigorous evaluation of their potential effectiveness. Lutgendorf et al.’s study is noteworthy for several reasons. First, the design represents how biofield practices are generally used as complementary therapies in cancer (i.e., patients use these approaches in conjunction with, as opposed to as an alternative to, standard treatment). The findings suggest the need to further investigate these and other complementary strategies as part of an Integrative Medicine model. Integrative Medicine refers to the integration of conventional, allopathic medicine with complementary medicine modalities that have demonstrated strong scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness. Integrative Medicine is a more