what's the evidential hierarchy of signs and symptoms when choosing a channel to treat?

Hi Jonathan, 

I think there is no general simple hierachy list. But I will try to give some hints.

1) In Korean medicine and Saam acupuncture for muscoskelatal diseases (as long as they are not systemic) in many cases the meridian approach is preferred. There are also some reasearch results showing that empirically Korean OMDs are using this approach to a higher degree. 

2) Korean Medicine is placing in general more emphasis on constitution compared to CM. This is one of the major differences. So thinking in a "Korean way" will usually consider any clear constitutional factors and try to balance them. 

3) In Korean medicine there is also a certain focus on getting things fixed ASAP in clinical treatment. This means having treatment success in short time. So I would always choose the strategy that is most promising to demonstrate a fast change to the patient. If you have established a good therapy process you might later turn to the root of the problem or treat the root in combination to the branch. But fast change of symptoms is preferred. 

4) For the psychological level - myself being a psychologist in my acedemic training - from a ethical perspective I would only treat the mental level in open communication with and with consent of your patient. You should not treat any emotional pattern without having discussed it or disclosed it with your patient. 

5) In general treat what seems to be the most important aspect in regards to the wholistic picture of your patient. 

6) I learned a very important lesson from one of my Korean teachers. It is a very simple approach but at the beginning of my career as an Asian medicine therapist I would never have done this by myself. My teacher simply asked the patients what is the most important thing they want to achieve at first in a therapy process / or even just today. In that way you are building good rapport and it will be what the patient really needs.

Andreas