NIH Complementary Health Approaches for Chronic Pain

National Institutes of Health • National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Complementary Health Approaches for Chronic Pain

September 2014

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/providers/digest/chronic-pain?nav=cd

This issue of the digest summarizes current scientific evidence about the complementary health approaches most often used by people for chronic pain, including fibromyalgia, headache, irritable bowel syndrome, low-back pain, neck pain, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
The scientific evidence to date suggests that some complementary health approaches may provide modest, short-term effects that may help individuals manage the day-to-day variations in their chronic pain symptoms. In most instances, though, the amount of evidence is too small to clearly show whether an approach is useful.