IELTS Writing Task 2 Topic 10: Different medical traditions

Courtney Miller

10 min read

Updated On Sep 18, 2023

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In IELTS Writing Task 2, students are asked to write a formal essay of at least 250 words, in 4-5 paragraphs based on the given writing task 2 essay topics. The task is similar for both Academic and General Training with regards to the type of questions and the scoring, but the topics given for General Training will be slightly easier than Academic. Given below is an essay with sample answers that will help you to practise and get a good score.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

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?

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Write at least 250 words.

Model Essay 01 :

Today, plenty of medical methods are used by professionals to cure humans. These methods have different impacts via different mechanisms to control the development of each disease. I believe that bonding between patient and doctor is extremely important because it can raise the level of confidence between them, and the patient will receive a more accurate therapy.

Apparently, despite using modern medication introduced by developed countries, alternative medicine, hypnotism or other traditional methods have not been forgotten yet. In this way, in China, traditional medicine has been used by many professionals teaching medicine in university, and different methods are applied to cure debilitated humans, like putting needles on different parts of feet to relieve musculoskeletal pains.

In addition, doctor-patient communication is a very important factor and positive reinforcement is a leading strategy that many health professionals usually use to enhance the level of reliability of each medical treatment. Clearly, having a better self-confidence, a medical doctor can show his or her abilities to cure diseases and become prosperous in finding the causes of their patients’ problems. In particular, an experienced psychologist can relief the symptoms of a depressed patient better when he is supported mentally by using some hypnotism techniques. His physician can explain the mechanism of this type of medical induction in detail and raise the trustworthy between them.

Another factor why a patient should be familiar with the process of his treatment is that he will become more punctual in using of drugs. Definitely, to reach the maximum of influence of each medication, including modern or alternative medicine, people must use prescribed drugs accurately. A perfect healthcare employee must value his or her patients’ opinions and give the detail of procedure as long as ethical issues of therapy are not being missed. For example, a one being diagnosed with a progressed cancer must be informed how much some alternative medicines might be important than chemotherapy, and their oncoming side effects must precisely be explained to the patient. As a result, this patient will be able to select these therapies instead of usage of chemical therapies.

In conclusion, reliability is an essential factor for receiving a better healthcare service. From my point of view, knowing about the details of treatment and having mutual relationship between doctor and patient, are the two important reasons that increase the speed of improvement of diseases.

Model Essay 02 :

These days all most all of the people are curious and concern about their health. So do I. I think it is because of the number of different medical traditions which are now, widely known and used.

The topic or argument which I will discuss today is, “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 poison), and so on. How important is the patient’s mental attitude towards his or her treatment in determining the effectiveness of the treatment?”

I think it is very important for the patient to have good mental attitude towards his or her treatment in determining the effectiveness of the treatment. It is because of a number of different medical traditions which are widely know or used.

After time by time, because of new or advanced technology, a lot of different medical treatments are coming out or invented from the doctors. And not all the people are aware or concern about that, the people, who do not believe, will get bad mental attitude and deny the treatment. If so, the doctors will have hard time determining the effective treatment. If that is the case, what could you do?

And one more thing which I want to tell is when the doctors or scientists make or invent new medical treatment, they should check many times before they will announce so that there will have trust between doctors and the patients. Most of people do not believe the effectiveness of new medical treatment because they are thinking it has not had full experiences with other people.

Because of the reasons above, I strongly believe that it is very important for the patient to have good moral attitude towards his or her treatment in determining the effectiveness of the treatment.

Model Essay 03 :

Nowadays, there are a plenty number of medical traditions that are widely known and used, such as Western Medicine which use drugs and surgery, herbal medicine, acupuncture which use needless at certain points of the body, and homoeopathy which use minute doses of poisons. Every medical tradition has advantages and disadvantages. The choice of the medical methods depends on patients’ preferences. Patients’ mental attitude and their believe in medical traditions that they choose play important part as a key success factor of disease curing.

Before patients choose the medical traditions that they want to use, they should find out the best methods for their disease. After that, they have to believe in the doctors, nurses, and other stakeholders who take care of them. They should also have positive and optimist feeling. They have to be sure that they can recover from their diseases.

Patients’ trust on the effectiveness of a particular treatment determines its result. With positive feeling, patients can face step by step of their medical treatment effectively. When people get sick, they treat themselves differently. They do what they believe as the best way to make them healthier.

When we get a heavy cough or flu, some people just believe that they need rest, need vitamin, take traditional treatment, or directly consume drugs from store for their diseases. Actually, all of treatments that they choose can work effectively if they believe in that.

In brief, after analyzing explanations above, we can conclude that patients’ mental attitude is the most important part toward their treatments in determining the effectiveness of all treatments.

Model Essay 04 :

A wide range of medical treatments is available today. Patients may wonder which will be the most effective, and whether their own mental attitude to the type of treatment might affect its success. This essay will consider the second of these questions.

Many people visit their doctor or go to hospital with complete trust in the expert care offered by conventional services. However, some people do not get a satisfactory result. For example, the drugs they are prescribed may have unpleasant side-effects. Their initial positive attitude towards their treatment does them little good.

Similarly, those patients who choose alternative treatments over traditional medicine may find themselves disillusioned. Less rigorous qualification standards among alternative practitioners may mean that some healers give ineffective or damaging advice. The result, again, is that a patient who entered treatment with confidence leaves that treatment disillusioned.

On the other hand, patients may try a style of treatment with some scepticism. A person used to conventional medicines and drugs may be suspicious of treatments based on diet and lifestyle changes. Yet if they follow such programs, they may in fact notice improvements in their condition, in spite of their scepticism. Equally, a patient opposed to conventional medicine may have an accident and be saved by the effective treatment of conventional emergency services.

In conclusion, it appears that the mental attitude of the patient is not the most significant factor in determining the outcome of the treatment. Patients who enter treatment confidently may leave disillusioned while those who begin treatment sceptical of the results may find themselves surprised with what they have gained. Patients should seek the advantages which each style of care can offer.

Model Essay 05 :

Health is a crucial thing for every single person in this world. When suffered an illness, medication is the direct solution the people take. Nowadays, there have been a big number of medical traditions widely recognized and applied like Western medicine, herbal medicine, acupuncture, homeopathy and many others. Regardless the classification of that medical treatment, patients’ mental attitude on a treatment is regarding one of key success. This essay aims to investigate several reasons which base the importance of that mental attitude related to this case.

To begin with, although it is very hard to believe, Psychologist often says that what you think, what you will be. What I mean is whatever the kind of medical treatment we use when we get sick, our trust on the effectiveness of a particular treatment determines its result. I think this is the reason why someone who is not successful to remove his/her pain by consuming a modern pill, suddenly feeling better after joining an acupuncture practice. Probably he/she puts trust more on the acupuncture rather than on the ingredients of pill he consumed.

Furthermore, the conservative patients like most old people in my village, get healthy sooner if they cure it with traditional medicine. However, the modern people like citizens in big city, hardly feel any effect by using such kind of treatment. In contrast, they feel their illness can be released more quickly by consuming modern pill or other kinds of modern medicine. Again, it is due to the level of trust or mental attitude they put on each kind of medication.

In short, after analyzing explanations above, it can be clearly concluded that mental attitude towards medical treatment plays vital role which determines the effectiveness of that treatment.

Model Essay 06 :

In this essay I shall elaborate on various ways of medical treatment versus the mental attitude of the person undergoing treatment.

The Homeopathic deals with administration of small quantities of mild medicines in the form of small white and sweet granules. This type of treatment cures the diseases permanently; however treatment takes longer while. The patient should have patience to be OK. There are no side effects in this treatment.

Herbal (Ayurvedic): The treatment comprises of powders, tablets, medicated oils etc. prepared from natural herbs, plants and minerals. This is one of the oldest types of treatment and has no side effects. This type of treatment is faster compared to Homeopathic.

Acupuncture: This is the Chinese way of medicine and it is based on a different paradigm from scientific biomedicine. Treatment of disease is attempted by the activity of needles, pressure, heat, etc. on sensitive parts of the body called “acupuncture points”. Besides, Acupressure is a similar Chinese medicine technique based on the same ideas as acupuncture. Acupressure involves placing physical pressure by hand or with the aid of various devices on different acupuncture points.

Finally Western Type, known as Allopathic type of treatment is the most popular and widely accepted these days. The medicines are made of different proportions of chemicals and drugs those can be administered orally or injected directly into the muscles, veins and arteries with the help of a suitable syringe. Surgery is also performed wherever needed. The treatment is popular and fast.

Summarizing, important for recovery is the positive mental attitudes, those make miracles regardless of the type of treatment.

Model Essay 07 :

Any type of medicine whether a western or traditional has its own advantages and disadvantages. Though some medicines are more effective while others less, the purpose of all the medicines is to treat the patient. I personally believe that any type of medicine if taken under proper guidance will benefit the consumer, irrespective of it being the western or traditional. It all depends on the persons thinking towards it.

Nowadays because of rapid growth in medical field, number of new medicines are coming in a very short period of time. People generally don’t have that much knowledge about each medicine that comes in a market. It leads to the confusion and finally people go with the traditional treatments that are already proven and used widely. Going by the traditional method they feel safe and it generates a positive flow within their mind and which in turn helps them to recover faster.

On the other hand, because of the advanced technology and research, its possible to cure and treat some of the diseases that were not possible to treat with the traditional methods. Not only the major diseases but research has proven that fever, cough, cold can have types like from pollution, from food and so on. So going by traditional method which was unable to distinguish between the actual cause may take patient longer to heal, but if patient’s mentality towards the traditional medicine is more positive than some of the modern medicines available then patient would choose the traditional way and it may heal him/her faster than some of the modern medicines available in the market.

So to conclude, patient’s mentality plays a very important role on the effectiveness of the treatment the patient is undergoing.