About this Research Topic
This Research Topic focuses on how to maintain mental health over a person’s lifespan by understanding their own unique set of resources, and how biological, behavioral, psychosocial and environmental factors influence these assets. The overall aim of the Topic is therefore to identify personal health resources that can be strengthened by complementary care.
Complementary care is used to promote health and improve quality of life by means of approaches or therapies that are used in addition to, or alongside, conventional care. Importantly, this Topic aims to identify and gather evidence of mechanisms of complementary care and complementary interventions that can promote mental health and prevent mental ill-health.
The global economic impact of mental health problems (including neurological, psychiatric, and substance use disorders) is enormous; the combined cost of these illnesses alone was estimated at 2.5 trillion US dollars in 2010 and is expected to more than double by 2030. Unfortunately, most people who are in need of mental health care lack access to high-quality care or even basic support from health services. Complementary care involves low-cost care with few side effects and can reach larger populations. Therefore, there is a need for health promotion, adopting a salutogenic perspective, focusing on health and dynamic conceptions that emphasize social and personal resources as well as physical capacities, in order to offer people a possibility to avoid illness and remain healthy.
The Topic Editors welcome submissions subject to two important selection criteria: (1) the presented studies must report high-quality evidence of the effects of complementary care interventions, (2) and be based on rigorous study designs, theoretical models and solid methodological frameworks.
Some suggested fields of complementary care would be acupuncture, massage, mindfulness, HRV-biofeedback, tai chi, yoga, animal assisted interventions, or using green areas to promote mental health.
We invite works from the fields of Health sciences, Nursing, Midwifery, Neurobiology, Psychology, Psychiatry and Complementary medicine, irrespective of their methodological approaches. The studies may be clinical trials, cross-sectional or longitudinal, prospective or retrospective, qualitative and/or quantitative, systematic reviews or meta-analyses. The submitted studies must focus on the effects or working mechanisms of complementary interventions.
Complementary care is used to promote health and improve quality of life by means of approaches or therapies that are used in addition to, or alongside, conventional care. Importantly, this Topic aims to identify and gather evidence of mechanisms of complementary care and complementary interventions that can promote mental health and prevent mental ill-health.
The global economic impact of mental health problems (including neurological, psychiatric, and substance use disorders) is enormous; the combined cost of these illnesses alone was estimated at 2.5 trillion US dollars in 2010 and is expected to more than double by 2030. Unfortunately, most people who are in need of mental health care lack access to high-quality care or even basic support from health services. Complementary care involves low-cost care with few side effects and can reach larger populations. Therefore, there is a need for health promotion, adopting a salutogenic perspective, focusing on health and dynamic conceptions that emphasize social and personal resources as well as physical capacities, in order to offer people a possibility to avoid illness and remain healthy.
The Topic Editors welcome submissions subject to two important selection criteria: (1) the presented studies must report high-quality evidence of the effects of complementary care interventions, (2) and be based on rigorous study designs, theoretical models and solid methodological frameworks.
Some suggested fields of complementary care would be acupuncture, massage, mindfulness, HRV-biofeedback, tai chi, yoga, animal assisted interventions, or using green areas to promote mental health.
We invite works from the fields of Health sciences, Nursing, Midwifery, Neurobiology, Psychology, Psychiatry and Complementary medicine, irrespective of their methodological approaches. The studies may be clinical trials, cross-sectional or longitudinal, prospective or retrospective, qualitative and/or quantitative, systematic reviews or meta-analyses. The submitted studies must focus on the effects or working mechanisms of complementary interventions.
Keywords: health care, evidence, mental health, intervention, complementary care/medicine
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
