John Yang

Title : Rethinking emotional disorders and their treatment options

Abstract:

Emotional disorders (i.e., depressive and anxiety disorders) are a set of chronic and often recurrent mental disorders that are associated with impairment in quality of life, productivity, and interpersonal functioning. Over the past 10 decades, although efforts have been made to understand the emotional disorders at the molecular and neuronal level, the treatments are no more effective today than they were 100 years ago. Rather than stuck in a nut on conventional biomedicine paradigms, it is necessary to think out of box by tap into traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) related to emotional disorders and find out a complementary treatment option for it. Through searching the TCM classics containing mental/emotional disorders in Huangdi Neijing, it was found that physiological function and pathological manifestations of viscera (heart ? and liver ?? are mostly related to the emotional disorders. Over 2000 years the Huangdi Neijing has laid the theoretical foundation and providing treatment principle for these disorders. The heart and liver systems involving with stagnant/blocked of vital energy??? flow have been clearly descripted and herbal medicine and acupuncture therapies have been summarized. Rather than focusing on the central neuron system (CNS)-orientated, single target, and conventional antidepressants healing scopes, TCM offers a holistic view, where herbal medicine and acupuncture are administrated in consideration with multiple interaction factors. This approach sheds a light on expending the treatment options for emotional disorders.

Biography:

Dr. John Yang is a registered Doctor of TCM in British Columbia, Canada. From 2003 to 2014 he was the Dean and Clinic Director at the PCU College of Holistic Medicine, British Columbia. As a TCM expert in the field, Dr. Yang has given many national and international presentations and lectures on TCM. Dr. Yang is the current President of the Federation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Colleges of Canada (FTCMCC) and Educational Committee member of World Federation of Acupuncture -Moxibustion Societies (WFAS). Dr. John Yang currently works at the Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) of British Columbia which is the first public university in Canada offering TCM-Acupuncture program. He is the program developer and the Chair of TCM department. He also is a visiting professor of Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine. Dr. Yang graduated from Hainan University Medical School, Haikou, China. He received his TCM training at the Hainan Provincial Hospital of TCM, Haikou, China and a PhD from Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. He has practiced TCM/acupuncture in Vancouver, Canada over 30 years.