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Editors Selection IGR 7-2
Miscellaneous: Effect of Stress Reduction on IOP
Comment by George Spaeth on:
104009 Effect of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Intraocular Pressure in Patients With Ocular Hypertension: A Randomized Control Trial, Dada T; Mondal S; Midha N et al., American Journal of Ophthalmology, 2022; 239: 66-73
Professor Dada has been a leader in investigating the link between the psyche and the soma.
I recall the certainty with which I repeated my teachers' mantra, while in medical school a mere 65 years ago; in response to a condition we did not understand I was taught that: 'She's just a mental case,' or, 'It's not organic.'
Even today, physicians commonly discount symptoms and illnesses as 'functional' ‒ that is, not real. This is understandable, because of the damage done to truth by thousands of years of fanciful or even delusional thinking. In the center of great philosophers ‒ Hellenic Greece ‒ most people truly believed that Zeus threw thunderbolts and fathered children by mating with a swan. Today, we are still confronted by those who insist that angels will cure their illness.
The dilemma is compounded by the certainty that the psyche and the soma are in fact just different labels, arbitrarily applied to create a differentiation between things that are in some way different, but are also intimately connected. So, while it is not likely Ste. Lucy will cure a person's glaucoma, perhaps a certainty that St. Raphael will not reattach a detached retina, nor St. Clare relieve a person from the 'darkness' of blindness, it is a certainty that what humans believe and think and feel does influence their well-being.
In this present publication, Dada and his colleagues have demonstrated that practicing the type of behavior called 'mindfulness' can lower intraocular pressure an average of 4 mmHg in people termed 'ocular hypertensives'. This was associated with a decrease in serum cortisol and an improvement in quality of life.
Take home: when people are cared for in ways that help them care for themselves, apparent changes occur
It is earnestly hoped that Dada will continue this study for, perhaps, 20 years. There is still almost no information about the long-term effects of this type of behavior on health. This absence is a damning commentary on physicians and the medical profession.
Take home: when people are cared for in ways that help them care for themselves, apparent changes occur. It makes sense to care for people in ways that help them to care for themselves.
(See also Kumar and Yeragani, 2010;52:S233; Winnicott, Collected Works, vol 3, Cpt 20, Oxford Academic, 2016; and Afford. BACP Private Practice, December 2019.)
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