The Integrative Approach of Anthroposophic Medicine

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Anthroposophic medicine integrates conventional medicine with an anthroposophic perception of the human being. The principal aspects of an anthroposophic medical approach to promoting health, and
preventing and curing illness are:

• it is an integrative medicine that builds on the well-established facts and methods of diagnosis and treatment of conventional medicine but extends it with a holistic approach;
• it is based on a holistic concept of health and so-called salutogenesis; this leads to effective strategies for disease prevention through education and lifestyle programmes and the development of self-management in the prevention of and coping with disease;
• it regards a pathological condition as the culmination of a longer process; the analysis of the process that leads to a pathological condition is of major importance in assessing the specific situation of the individual patient in his or her biography and for the subsequent diagnosis and therapeutic process;
• it both assesses the situation of the patient’s illness and takes account of the patient’s relationship with his or her social and natural environment;
• it includes a psychological, mental and spiritual dimension in its assessment of the imbalances of the individual patient;
• the therapeutic approach is seen as a process rather than a switch from a condition of illness to a condition of health; this provides an approach to treatment that is process-related;
• a comprehensive and individual analysis leads to a highly individualised treatment approach; this corresponds to individualised use and application of both anthroposophic and conventional medicinal products and other therapies;
• all therapeutic treatments are aimed at stimulating the ability of the patient to self-heal, the so-called salutogenetic principle;
• emphasis is put on an optimal multi-disciplinary approach, adjusting the application of anthroposophic medicinal products and different anthroposophic therapies, according to
  the actual situation of the patient;
• self-responsibility, patient choice and active participation in the healing process are emphasised; the autonomy of the patient is central to anthroposophic medicine;
• anthroposophic medicine is practised by physicians with a dual training; they have to be fully qualified as a physician first and then to graduate from a further three years of training as an anthroposophic doctor;
• the therapeutic concept of anthroposophic medicine is practised in multi-therapeutic settings or clinics and anthroposophic physicians are active in general practice as well as in all specialist fields of medicine;
• anthroposophic medicine is a medical system offering sustainable and cost-effective solutions for public health.

Last update 26.5.2011 ©IVAA 2011