Pharmacological or Non-Pharmacological that is the question!!

Hi there, my clinical group was assigned to present on the topic of Non-Pharmacological therapies. We all did some research, regrouped and discussed our findings. We came up with several treatments and nursing considerations for each. However, the topic of Herbal Therapy came up and whether to include it in our presentation or not. Half the group felt that because, by definition non-pharmacological therapy means: " any therapy that does not include drugs or medications. It is treatment modalities that do not utilize or involve pharmacological means, i.e. medications." That herbal MEDICATIONS should not be included. As they still undergoes all the processes of pharmacokenetics and pharmacodynamics. The other half of the group felt that because they are herbs, they naturally formed, that they do not have to be taken in pill form (i.e- ginger, rosemary, mints) they could fall under the category of food and therefore should be included.
We are really torn and don't want to not include the topic if it is considered and we don't want to include it if it isn't. Thanks Last edit by drem7116 on Feb 12, '11 : Reason: did not post correctly
In my opinion I wouldn't use herbal information unless your presentation is really long and you find yourself needing something else interesting to fill the time. When I was in school we had a whole training session on non-pharmacologic pain relief during labor and it was really interesting how you can use not only massage but also music and different therapies. Good luck with your presentation

In this day and age herbals are considered pharma in that they are taken to medicate. Lots of warnings of interactions with FDA drugs and herbals in fact most drug reference resources worth salt, list herbals as well and dosing. As far as your dynamics/kinetics go anything that can get absorbed by your body will give readings.Your focus should be in "nursing interventions" that are non-invasive. The prior poster gave you the BIG HINT on your direction.

thanks guys, we were not limited to just herbal remedies....in our presentation we are discussing meditation, music, prayer, imagery, reiki, therapeutic touch and communication as forms of complimentary and alternative medicine. I personally don't feel that herbs should be discussed, because of the reasons i mentioned in the 1st post. However I wanted to get the opinion of some pros

you may add: yoga, pilate, dog therapy, clown therapy (i think that what it' s called), acupuntcure, ...

You could include herbal therapy as dietary, eg parsley and celery for people with water retention, or green tea. However, herbal medications would fall out of that category, because they are regarded as pharmacological. Remember, most of the medications in use do have a herbal or plant background-consider foxglove, or natural remedies such as Valerian. There are numerous herbs and spices that have beneficial effects, and if you can point out how they can be utilized in the patient's daily diet I see no reason why you shouldn't use it in your paper.Parsley-natural diuretic. Nutmeg-flatulence, insomnia. Garlic-resistance to infection. Chamomile-stress relief.Look up some common herbs and spices, and you'll find most of them have one or other medicinal use.

How about high-frequency therapy and infra-red therapy?