3.1 Arruda et al. Bach’s flower remedies in patient with a history of sexual abuse: a case report (2015)
A.P.N. Arruda, L.G. Balneaves, R.N.T. Turrini; Cad. Naturol. Complem. Ther., 4(6), 67-75
This case study involved a 21-year-old female student (a childhood sexual abuse survivor). Selection of remedies was performed monthly, over a period of four months, when the patient was asked to look at photos of the 38 individual remedy flowers and group them into those she felt neutral about, liked or disliked. The top three taken from each of the latter two groups, leading to a total of six remedies in each month’s mix. The selection method was based on the Barnao approach as described in his book ‘Essencias Floral Essence Australianas Para o Seculo XXI.’ Interaction with the researcher was minimised to help avoid a ‘therapeutic’ effect during this process.
Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The quantitative data involved two standardized questionnaires, administered as a baseline and two months into treatment: the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) and a self-report questionnaire (SRQ-20) which is used to assess common mental disorders (CMD).
Qualitative data took the form of open-ended questions about the patient’s physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, for which she provided written answers, collected at the beginning of the second, third and fourth months. In the final appointment, a second question was added about the positive and negative aspects of the treatment.
The qualitative findings reported ‘significant improvement in emotional well-being’, positive dreams and a sense of ‘joy and lightness’, as well as a willingness to explore dating (something she had previously resisted). By the third appointment, the patient reported successfully engaging in a relationship, and overall feeling ‘happier with herself’.
In response to the question about negative aspects of the treatment, the patient reported ‘periodic anger’, increased emotional sensitivity and crying, loneliness, ‘regret about her reclusive nature’ and increased frequency of headaches. Quantitative results showed improvements between the first and third appointments – with the SRQ-20 score reducing from 10 to 7 (indicating a shift from positive to negative measure of CMD) and the SWBS score increasing from 76 to 107 (a shift from medium to high spiritual well-being over this period).
Comments:
A positive of this study was that the remedies were individually selected each month, rather than the same set given throughout.
However, although individualised, using the patient’s intuitive liking or disliking for a set of pictures is not the optimal remedy selection method as outlined by Dr Bach. Assessment by a Bach practitioner would be a fairer test of the Bach system, both in replicating how it is usually practised and also it would allow the number of remedies actually required to be chosen. Sometimes a single remedy or two or three is/are all that is required and ‘extra’ remedies can retard progress, so choosing six every time is a limitation of this study.
One limitation of a case study approach – fully acknowledged by the authors here – is that it can’t show a reliable cause-effect relationship; it is possible this patient may have improved simply by the passage of the four months. However, the improvement in an emotional condition suffered from for some years is marked so this is a strong indicator that the remedies were the likely source of the improvement.
Summary: This case study provides some evidence indicating the Bach remedies had a marked positive impact on the emotional well-being and ability to form intimate relationships for this individual patient.