Arkhangelsk Doctors Treat with Death

New method of treatment makes a patient fly away

A new method of medical treatment is introduced at an oncological hospital in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia. The new method covers the field of psychotherapy. The method is called tanatotherapy, according to Regnum news agency.

As it was reported, there was a psychotherapeutic department opened at the regional oncological hospital. The department will render necessary help to patients, their relatives, as well as to medical personnel. The new method of tanatotherapy is going to be applied there too.

The notion of tanatotherapy is translated from Latin as treating with death (“tanatos” – death). The new method is based on the psychological influence on a human being. Doctors use special techniques to affect a person’s muscles in order to make a patient relax as much as possible. Doctor Elena Takhtarova, an assistant of the Institute of Psychiatry of the Northern Medical University, stated that the method allows to make a patient forget about his or her troubles and problems. She said that the method also helps to relieve pain and even inspire an individual in a most depressing situation.

This therapy is body-oriented. Doctors apply tanatotherapy to treat not only oncological patients, but also the people, who suffer from heart diseases, bronchial asthma, various skin diseases, sexual disorders. All those illnesses are included in the group of psychosomatic diseases, which are caused with stresses or negative emotions. Elena Takhtarova said that about 70% of all patients were in need of psychotherapeutic help.

The doctor also said that there was a hope that the psychotherapeutic field of medicine will get closer to conventional medical treatment. The new department in the oncological hospital of the Arkhangelsk region is the first step on the way to that.

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov