Abstracts

BACKGROUND: Anxiety is a serious personal health condition and represents a substantial burden to overall quality of life. Additionally, anxiety disorders represent a significant cost to the health care system as well as employers through benefits, coverage and days missed due to incapacity. This study sought to explore the effectiveness of naturopathic care on anxiety symptoms using a randomized trial. METHODS: Employees with moderate to severe anxiety of longer than 6 weeks duration were randomized based on age and gender to receive naturopathic care (NC) (n=41) or standardized psychotherapy intervention (PT) (n=40) over a period of 12 weeks. Blinding of investigators and participants during randomization and allocation was maintained. Participants in the NC group received dietary counseling, deep breathing, relaxation techniques, a standard multi-vitamin and the herbal medicine, ashwagndha (Withania somnifera) (300 mg b.i.d standardized to 1.5% withnaolides, prepared from root). The PT intervention received psychotherapy and matched deep breathing relaxation techniques, and placebo. The primary outcome measure was the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and secondary outcome measures included the Short Form 36 (SF-36), Fatigue Symptom Inventory (FSI) and Measure Yourself Medical Outcomes Profiles (MY-MOP) to measure anxiety, mental health and quality of life respectively. Participants were blinded to the placebo-controlled intervention. RESULTS: Seventy-five participants (93%) were followed for 8 or more weeks on the trial. Final BAI scores decreased by 56.5% (p