RESUMO
Anxiety is a highly frequent condition; many patients seek complementary treatment. One of these is anthroposophic medicine (AM) using therapeutic approaches that are based on a distinct concept of the human organism, illness, and healing. AM is applied in anxiety; however, little is known about underlying therapeutic concepts, the effectiveness, and the modalities of clinical reasoning and judgment. Presented is a 21-year-old woman who had suffered from severe and increasing anxiety for 6 months, which had led to social isolation and complete sick leave from work. She had attended an AM health care center and counseling at a psychiatric hospital but had not improved significantly after 6 months. Eurythmy therapy (EYT) was then applied for 8 weeks. Within the AM pathophysiological context, the patient was diagnosed as having stress-induced anxiety based on a juvenile disturbance of the rhythmical system. Associated symptoms were specific anomalies in the patient's eurythmy movement pattern, a "breathed-in-upwards syndrome." In the EYT sessions, clear interconnections between EYT-exercises and symptom-relief were observable, paralleled by a substantial relief of the patient's anxiety. EYT might have some impact on anxiety syndrome and should be investigated in more detail.
