Evidence and Narrative Based Medicine: A Synthesis for Addiction Medicine?

ABSTRACT

Within primary health care, evidenced-based medicine (EBM) remains the primary methodology for examining the efficacy of medical treatments. Although EBM has dramatically improved treatment outcomes, it fails to reflect the full spectrum of factors involved in the care and healing of patients. As a result, many physicians have adopted narrative based medicine (NBM) within their clinical practice and research. Unlike EBM, NBM focuses on examining the intertwining narratives found between physician-patient relationships and society. In the framework of NBM, the physician aims to utilize the narratives of themselves and their patients to address the relational and psychological dimensions involved in both treatment and healing. Currently, there is a growing movement that seeks to reconnect EBM care models of addiction treatment to the larger and more enduring lived experience of personal and family recovery. Such a synthesis could counter the limitations of both EBM and NBM within the future of medicine.

KEYWORDS:

• Evidenced Based Medicine (EBM)
• Narrative Based Medicine (NBM)
• addiction
• medicine
• narrative
• physician-patient relationship

Acknowledgments

I thank William L. White for his advice and support writing this manuscript.

Declaration of Interest

The author report no conflict of interest.