Complementary and alternative medicine approaches to pain management

Abstract

This article argues for and illustrates incorporating complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) interventions into pain treatment plans. Two CAM treatments, cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) and self-hypnosis training, are offered in a multidisciplinary pain treatment program. Because these interventions focus on pain relief, they may be of particular interest to patients who have chronic pain who begin treatment with a primary interest in pain reduction. Two cases that illustrate the clinical application of CES and self-hypnosis are presented. When effective, these interventions can help patients have greater confidence in treatments offered by psychologists for pain management and may help make them more open to participating in other psychological interventions that have established efficacy for pain management (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy). Because of their brevity, these treatments also can be offered alone to patients who may not have the resources or time to participate in more time-intensive treatment.

Complementary And Alternative Medicine (CAM) in Palestine: Use And Safety Implications

“…Efficacy and safety of several CAM techniques have been addressed by several investigators. 5,[36][37][38][39][40][41] Many curative ingredients are found in medicinal plants that have been proven to be valuable as primary or supplemental therapies when carefully applied. 42 Herbal therapy and prayers were the most commonly used CAM among the respondents in our study.…”

A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial of Chiropractic and Medical Prophylactic Treatment of Adults With Tension-Type Headache: Results From a Stopped Trial

“…[23][24][25][26] Complementary therapies are also used in the treatment of TTH. [27][28][29][30][31] Chiropractic spinal manipulation (CSM) is one of these. Systematic reviews by Vernon et al, 32 Bronfort et al, 33,34 Fernandez de las Penas et al, 35 and Lenssinck et al 36 identified two trials of CSM for TTH, one of which employed amitriptyline as the comparator, demonstrating benefit equal to that of amitriptyline after six weeks of spinal manipulation 37 and the other demonstrating benefits no greater than soft tissue massage.…”

Eeg Transfer Entropy Tracks Changes in Information Transfer on the Onset of Vision

“…In neurofeedback electroencephalographic signals control the feedback signal. Neurofeedback has been used to treat several neuropsychiatric disorders including depression [16][17] , post-traumatic stress disorder 18 , traumatic brain injury [19][20][21] and chronic pain 22 . In these treatments the feedback signal to the patient is usually constructed from the spectral properties of the signal, for example alpha asymmetry.…”