ABPS Integrative Medicine key terms

A whole-person approach to care that combines conventional medical treatment with evidence-informed complementary therapies, emphasizing the therapeutic relationship, lifestyle, and coordination across disciplines rather than replacing standard care.

Therapies such as acupuncture, massage, or herbal products used alongside conventional treatment rather than as a substitute for it. The label describes how a therapy is used, not whether it has been proven effective.

A therapy used in place of conventional medical treatment. This substitution pattern raises safety concerns because effective standard care may be delayed or omitted, especially in serious or progressive disease.

An approach that considers biological, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions of a patient's health, along with their values and preferences, when planning evaluation and treatment.

A framework holding that illness and pain arise from interacting biological, psychological, and social factors, so assessment and treatment should address all three rather than biology alone.

A real, measurable improvement in symptoms or function produced by expectation, ritual, and the context of treatment rather than by a specific active ingredient of the therapy.

Benefits or harms of a treatment that come from factors other than its presumed mechanism, such as attention from a practitioner, relaxation, regression to the mean, or natural symptom fluctuation.

An eating pattern emphasizing vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, olive oil, fish, and moderate dairy, with limited red and processed meat and added sugars. It is associated with lower cardiovascular risk in large trials and cohorts.

The overall combination and frequency of foods and beverages a person habitually consumes, assessed as a whole rather than nutrient by nutrient. Pattern-level analysis better captures synergies and long-term health associations.

A product taken by mouth that contains a vitamin, mineral, herb, amino acid, enzyme, or other ingredient intended to supplement the diet. In the United States it is regulated as food, not as a drug.

A manufacturing process that adjusts a botanical extract so a specified marker compound or group reaches a consistent concentration from batch to batch. It reduces some variability but does not guarantee clinical equivalence.

A medicinal product derived from a plant part, such as leaf, root, bark, or flower, used for therapeutic purposes. Identity, part used, extraction method, and dose all influence its effects and safety.

A change in the effect or blood level of a medication caused by a botanical product, typically through altered liver enzyme activity, transporter function, or additive pharmacologic effects such as bleeding risk.

The highest average daily intake of a nutrient considered unlikely to pose risk of adverse health effects to nearly all people in a defined group. It is not a target and does not apply to treating deficiency.

A family of nutrient reference values, including recommended dietary allowance, adequate intake, estimated average requirement, and upper limit, used to assess and plan intake for healthy populations.

Practices that use the interactions among brain, mind, body, and behavior to influence health, including meditation, relaxation, hypnosis, guided imagery, yoga, tai chi, and expressive therapies.

A practice of intentionally attending to present-moment experience, such as breath or bodily sensation, with an attitude of openness and without judgment, often cultivated through structured programs like mindfulness-based stress reduction.

A physiologic state of lowered sympathetic arousal and increased parasympathetic tone, characterized by reduced heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen consumption, elicited by practices such as meditation or slow breathing.

A structured, time-limited psychotherapy that targets unhelpful thoughts and behaviors maintaining distress, widely adapted for chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety, and depression with strong evidence in these conditions.

A collaborative, person-centered counseling style that helps patients articulate and strengthen their own reasons for change, using open questions, reflective listening, and affirmation rather than advice-giving or confrontation.

A staged model of behavior change describing progression through precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance, with relapse as a normal step. Interventions are matched to the person's current stage.

A person's confidence in their ability to carry out a specific behavior or cope with a specific challenge. Higher self-efficacy predicts better adherence and persistence in lifestyle change and pain self-management.

A traditional East Asian therapy in which thin needles are inserted at defined body points and often stimulated manually or electrically. Evidence supports use for some pain conditions and chemotherapy-induced nausea.

The characteristic needling sensation in acupuncture, described as aching, heaviness, distension, or tingling, sometimes accompanied by a spreading feeling. Its role in clinical outcomes remains debated.

In traditional East Asian medicine, one of the channels through which qi is said to flow and along which acupuncture points are located. Modern research has not identified an anatomical correlate.

A traditional concept of vital energy or functional activity said to circulate in the body and underlie health and illness. It is a framework concept from traditional theory rather than a measurable physiologic substance.

Acupuncture in which inserted needles are connected to a device delivering low-frequency electrical current, often used to intensify stimulation for pain and nausea. Devices and current parameters must be used safely.

A control procedure intended to mimic acupuncture without its presumed active effect, using non-penetrating needles, off-point needling, or minimal stimulation. Choice of sham affects trial interpretation.

Hands-on techniques such as mobilization, manipulation, and soft tissue work applied to joints and muscles to reduce pain and improve movement, typically as part of a broader rehabilitation plan.

A high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust applied to a spinal joint, producing a cavitation often felt as a pop. It can reduce pain and improve function in some musculoskeletal conditions but carries rare serious risks.

Systematic manipulation of soft tissues by hands or devices, including Swedish, deep tissue, and myofascial techniques, used mainly for short-term relief of musculoskeletal pain, stress, and anxiety.

Clinical findings suggesting serious underlying disease, such as unexplained weight loss, night pain, fever, neurologic deficits, or history of cancer, that require medical evaluation before or instead of manual or complementary therapy.

Population recommendations, typically 150 minutes or more per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity plus muscle strengthening on two or more days, with specific guidance for older adults and those with chronic conditions.

An individualized written plan specifying frequency, intensity, time, type, and progression of activity, matched to a patient's goals, fitness, and comorbidities, with monitoring and follow-up.

A collaborative process in which clinician and patient exchange information about options, benefits, and harms and agree on a plan consistent with the patient's values and preferences.

Combining several evidence-based approaches, such as exercise, psychological therapy, manual therapy, and judicious medication, to treat chronic pain more effectively than any single modality alone.

A cognitive pattern of magnifying the threat and seriousness of pain and feeling helpless about it. It predicts greater disability and is a target of cognitive behavioral and mindfulness-based interventions.

Increased responsiveness of central nervous system pain pathways, producing amplified pain and sensitivity to normally nonpainful stimuli. It helps explain chronic pain that persists beyond tissue healing.

Use of estrogen, with a progestogen when a uterus is present, to relieve vasomotor symptoms and genitourinary changes. Decisions weigh symptom severity against individualized cardiovascular, breast, and thromboembolic risk.

Use of specific nutrients during pregnancy, notably folic acid before and early in pregnancy to reduce neural tube defects, plus individualized iron, iodine, and vitamin D as indicated.

A study in which participants are randomly assigned to intervention or control groups to compare outcomes. Randomization, when properly concealed, balances known and unknown confounders and supports causal inference.

A structured synthesis that uses predefined search, selection, and appraisal methods to summarize all relevant studies on a question, often with meta-analysis to pool effect estimates.

The tendency for studies with positive or statistically significant results to be published and cited more often than negative ones, which can make a treatment appear more effective than it is.

The statistical tendency for extreme measurements to move closer to average on remeasurement. It can make a therapy look effective when symptoms were simply at a peak when treatment began.

A process of disclosing the nature, benefits, risks, and alternatives of a proposed treatment and confirming the patient's voluntary agreement, including the option to decline.

The legally defined activities, procedures, and responsibilities a licensed clinician may perform, set by state or provincial law and professional boards, and a limit on cross-disciplinary care.

Coordinated teamwork among clinicians from different professions who share planning and decision-making around a patient's care, with clear roles and open communication about all treatments in use.

The 1994 United States law that placed dietary supplements under a food-like regulatory framework, requiring good manufacturing practices and labeling but not premarket proof of efficacy or safety.