CAM Therapy Combined with Conventional Medical Care May Improve Treatment of Lower Back Pain

April 24, 2012 - PRLog -- New Rochelle, NY— Nearly 8 of 10 Americans will experience lower back pain at some time in their lives. Persistent low back pain is a common, incapacitating, costly, and difficult to treat condition. Many patients might benefit significantly from an individualized, multidisciplinary, team-based model of care that includes access to licensed complementary care practitioners (e.g., chiropractors, massage therapists, and acupuncturists) in addition to conventional care providers, as demonstrated in a study published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article, “A Model of Integrative Care for Low-Back Pain,” is available free on The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine website at http://www.liebertpub.com/acm.

David M. Eisenberg, MD, and colleagues from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA), Group Health Research Institute (Seattle, WA), and Brown University (Providence, RI), compared conventional therapy alone—defined as “usual care”—to the combination of an integrated program of complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies plus usual care. They report significant differences between the two randomized patient groups in outcomes which included pain, functional status, and difficulty performing routine, self-identified challenging activities.  

CAM therapies were provided by a trained team of healthcare practitioners and included acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, mind-body techniques, and nutritional counseling. Usual care consisted of treatments provided by subjects’ primary care physicians and typically included non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), physical therapy and bed rest as needed, education, and changes in activity levels.


About the Journal
The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine is a monthly peer-reviewed journal publishing observational, clinical, and scientific reports and commentary intended to help healthcare professionals and scientists evaluate and integrate therapies into patient care protocols and research strategies. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine website at http://www.liebertpub.com/acm.

About the Company
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Alternative and Complementary Therapies, Medical Acupuncture, and Journal of Medicinal Food. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. website at http://www.liebertpub.com.

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Phone: (914) 740-2100    (800) M-LIEBERT    Fax:  (914) 740-2101