Chronic Pain and Complementary Health Practices

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) reports that millions of Americans suffer from pain that is chronic, severe, and not easily managed. Pain from arthritis, back and neck problems, musculoskeletal conditions, and headaches cost U.S. businesses more than $61 billion a year in lost worker productivity.

Pain is the most common health problem for which adults use complementary health practices. Many people with conditions causing chronic pain turn to alternative practices to supplement other conventional medical treatment, or when their pain is resistant or in an effort to avoid side effects of medications. Despite the widespread use of complementary health practices for chronic pain, scientific evidence on efficacy and mechanisms—whether the therapies help the conditions for which they are used and, if so, how—is, for the most part, limited. However, the evidence base is growing, especially for several complementary health practices commonly used by people to lessen pain.