Elsevier

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 44, Issue 4, February 1997, Pages 535-539
Social Science & Medicine

Short report
Efficacy of the Tibetan treatment for arthritis

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(96)00165-7Get rights and content

Abstract

Tibetans in the refugee communities in Northern India are exposed to both traditional Tibetan and Western medicine. For Tibetans suffering from arthritis (or trung-bo), the Tibetan treatment was compared with the Western treatment in an open randomized controlled trial. On a significance level of 0.0005, this trial demonstrated that for these Tibetans, their indigenous treatment worked better than the Western treatment for improved limb mobility.

References (13)

  • R. Anderson

    The treatment of musculoskeletal disorders by a Mexican bonesetter (sobador)

    Social Science & Medicine

    (1987)
  • R. Anderson

    The efficacy of ethnomedicine: research methods in trouble

    Medical Anthropology

    (1991)
  • Anderson, R. (1993) Personal communication, 14...
  • Arthritis Research Council
  • P.M. Brooks

    Protocol for evaluation of nonsteroidal drugs

    Journal of Rheumatology

    (1994)
  • K. Finkler

    Spiritualist Healers in Mexico

    (1985)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (19)

  • Patient patterns of use and experience of acupuncture

    2007, Acupuncture Research: Strategies for Establishing an Evidence Base
View all citing articles on Scopus

Fieldwork was supported by the Emslie Horniman Fund, the Royal Anthropological Institute, and the Parkes Foundation, Cambridge, as part of a Ph.D. at Oxford University. This short paper reports only the most scientific part of a larger anthropological study, which covers both biological and cultural aspects of Tibetan medicine. The author is supported by DANIDA.

View full text