The first topics that we covered in this class were the
biological and ecological approaches to medical anthropology. I found the
biological approach quite useful in terms of applying it to anxiety. It is
pretty self-explanatory as it looks at medical anthropology from a biological
approach. It covers such topics such as human growth and development, adaption
to the environment, as well as human genetic variation and individual choices.
The ecological approach to medical anthropology explores the environment around
us in terms of human nature. It basically examines humans, plants, animals,
natural resources, the economy, politics, and how all of these factors affect
our overall health as humans. To relate this to anxiety, the biological
approach would look at the human body and its biological functions in order to
try and help remedy the illness, whereas the ethological approach would examine
the surroundings of the human in order to find a cure. All of these are very
important for human health one of the concepts that I found interesting in this
week's discussion was the relationship between health and wealth, in which I
documented in my forum post for that week.
To elaborate on these topic topics, I found a case study from Theravive which covers the story of a man named James with GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder, see link below). The case study begins with an overall description of what it is like to have GAD, and then continues to dive into the life of James. I'm not going to give a full analysis of the case study but I will highlight some important parts. I found it quite interesting that James was a medical doctor himself, so he tried to self diagnose himself. James was told that taking medication was only a short-term solution, because these types of medications are known to be very addictive, so it was suggested that he go seek alternate ways to get healthy and rid himself of anxiety. The article talks about the different kinds of worries, and explains how anxiety has major effects on the ability to properly cognitively function. I thought that it was quite insightful that the case study concluded that it was in James' best interest to seek other forms of medicine, such as medical anthropology. This ties into what we talked about this week in lecture. The differences between the biological and ecological approaches to medical anthropology and how they can be applied to health and wellness James was told that his best bet was to seek psychiatric health if he ever wants continue his success as a doctor. I find that his case could be related to course materials that we talked about this week, like I mentioned earlier about the connection between wealth and health. He was a very wealthy man who had it made, and still yet suffered from GAD. It makes you wonder how people with his illness could treat it in relation to their state of wealth. This can also be compared in broader terms about how we as Americans treat our health as a whole. From a biological standpoint, the brain and its functions can be tested to see what can be done and how healthy it is. I think that the ecological and cultural approach could be related because it looks at our surroundings and how we approach medicine and illnesses different in each culture. References theravive. "Generalized Anxiety Disorder Case Study: James." http://www.theravive.com/research/Generalized-Anxiety-Disorder-Case-Study%3a-James. |
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