[Alternative treatment in psychiatric and psychotherapy facilities in Germany]

Questionnaires were sent to 545 clinics with at least partial psychotherapeutic or psychiatric activities to find out the spectrum of therapeutic techniques and methods used, as well as the spectrum of therapists' qualifications. From the 314 responding clinics, 127 different methods were named with an average of 4.0 each. The proportion of physicians and psychologists to patients becomes worse the bigger the clinics are: e.g., in the class of less than 50 beds, one psychologist cares for 7 patients; in the class 51-300 beds, the relation is one to 48. The six most frequently used methods are: music therapy (36.9%), imagery (25.2%), dance therapy (23.2%), autogenous training (22.6%), body therapies (21.7%), and psychodrama (18.2%). Apart from physicians and psychologists, 38 other professional groups were named. Comparing the answers concerning the methods with the performing professional group, an apparent trend towards a professional diversification was found, e.g. only 62% of music therapy is performed by music therapists, the rest by other professional groups. Finally, analysis of special remarks on the questionnaires resulted in four groups: discussions concerning the term alternative methods, recommendations to use unconventional methods after the clinical phase, conceptual changes of a clinic, and broader theoretical backgrounds integrating various methods, e.g. the psychoanalytic concept.