You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

A number of different medical traditions are now widely known and used: Western medicine (using drugs and surgery), herbal medicine, acupuncture (using needles at certain points of the body), homoeopathy (using minute doses of poisons), and so on. How important is the patient’s mental attitude towards his/her treatment in determining the effectiveness of the treatment?

 Write at least 250 words.

MODEL ANSWER:

There exists a variety of treatment options these days, ranging from traditional herbal medicine to most modern Western medicine. However, it is argued that a patient’s mental attitude towards these treatment and the treatment options is vital in making his prognosis effective. I too agree to the same to a great extent.

The cardinal reason why I think in a very similar way is because of the fact that our physical health is closely related to our mental health. To be precise, if a person has a positive urge to recover from any of his medical condition, even in case of some serious illnesses like cancer, he could defend it successively and often can overcome it easily. On the other hand, if he feels hapless in his mind, the prognosis may delay, or at times, the condition would worsen.

Looking at from another angle, the attitude of a person towards the treatment option is very crucial in the effectiveness of his treatment. For example, some people find themselves comfortable with herbal medicines, while some feel homeopathy is the best for them. In this case, another treatment option, if provided to any of these individuals is most likely to fetch negative results. By contrast, if he is provided with the treatment option he prefers, for example acupuncture to Western medicine, it would appear to be effective.

I admit that there are specific treatment options for specific illnesses. For instance, better treatment options for lung cancer is either chemotherapy or lung resection. Here, alternative treatment options are least effective, even if the patient favours any of those.

To conclude, though the effectiveness of treatment depends on the way a person is treated based on his condition, in most cases, if he has a positive attitude towards the treatment and the treatment options, his recovery rate would be better.