Pain Case Study

According to the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine “CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered to be part of conventional medicine.” (NCCAM, 2007) Science has yet to determine if these therapies are safe. Regardless of the answer there are hundreds of thousands of people today that use CAM to treat hundreds of different medical problems. Societies have used many of these practices for over 4000 years and are still in use today. CAM allows for a complete and holistic way of treatment of the human body.

Examining how and why CAM therapies have become so popular, in spite of what may appear as people ignoring efficacy concerns, is perhaps due to a general dissatisfaction with conventional medicine. How this has come about lies within changing social values; which have popularised holism, inspired

CAM therapies are being used more today than in years past. The use of CAM has become helpful for many patients to elevate symptoms of their ailment. When studying which CAM therapy is right for the symptoms that are presented we need to be sure that the source of information is reliable and credible.

The relationship discovered in the articles written by Denneson, et., al (2011) and Fletcher, et., al (2016) discuss how the Department of Veterans Affair is studying the significance of using complementary alternative medicine to effectively control chronic noncancerous pain versus the continuous use of opioids. Massage therapy was the most preferred and effective method for management of pain. In the article written by Fletcher, et., al (2016), about 60 percent of the outpatient was taking opioids for management of chronic pain.

The following analysis will observe various methods of CAM pain reduction, highlighting two major CAM therapies of interest: music therapy, animal therapy. In addition, the following analysis will discuss how different demographics react to such therapies, with gender, age, ethnicity, and education level playing a role in relation to a patient’s willingness to be open to CAM. Lastly this analysis will discuss the drawbacks of CAM therapies in the medical community today, emphasising a lack of discussion between provider and patient, and the general lack of clinical education surrounding CAM therapies within the medical community.

In conclusion, we will face facts that we need to have respect and understanding of the religious beliefs. Today, majority of people are using some sort of CAM’s. Health care providers may not approve of the alternative medicine, but this is reality. With the cost of health care and medicines rising, why would you not want to try alternative medicines? However, when you are talking to your patient about the use of

The mission of NCCAM is to investigate the “usefulness and safety” of alternative and complementary medicine and the roles they could possibly play in improving health of the nation and our healthcare system by advance research on mind and body interventions,

Although, U.S. adults are increasingly using CAM therapies, a national survey characterizing U.S. adults, who does not consider the use CAM has yet to be described. According to the NHIS study, "an estimated 16-26 percent of the adult population does not receive conventional care in a year. Also, an estimated 4 percent of adult population may use it as an alternative to conventional medicine (alternative medicine). Thus, up to 20-25 percent of the adult population not receiving conventional care in a year might, be using alternative medicine instead" (Nahin, Dahlhamer, Stussman, 2010). This paper will discuss the reasons people chose CAM therapies, follow by the area in which CAM is more prone, then focus on how the article contributes to

1. CAM has involved into integrative healthcare which means that lifestyle factores such as diet, nutrition, physical activity play a significant role in an individual's state of health. The NIH's NCCAM has sponsored numerous studies confirming the safety and efficacy of many integrative health care strategies and interventions.Evidence-based care must come into the 21st century and not rely solely on pharmaceuticals (Greek root word "pharma" means poison).

Ten’s of millions of dollars have been poured into research for this treatment, and yet all have come back with virtually insignificant results. All of the participants, control group as well as those who received the treatment, reported almost the same about of pain relief. Harriet Hall, an ex-physician and noted critic of CAM, had this to say: “ We have no evidence that acupuncture is anything more than theatrical placebo,” ( Interlandi 24 ). Although placebo is often seen as bad or ineffective experience in medicine and studies, it could be used as a treatment all of it’s own. As a placebo is where the brain is “tricked” into believing the body is undergoing effects that, in reality, it is not. In simply reshaping the reality of some patients situations, they can be healed ( Benedetti 22 ). The human mind is a complex system that controls more body functions than we are aware of in many cases. If a patient believes that they will never get better, treatment can only do so much, there must be belief and treatment before the patient can become well ( Chandler np

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapy, has been around and practiced by many countries considered as undeveloped or developing for centuries. It’s use in modern times by developed countries has increased tremendously, as research has shown the effectiveness of its use. CAM therapy and practices are being embraced by healthcare professionals slowly, in what is considered an alternative therapy, or adjunct to western medicine. However, research shows that many individuals are using CAM, but are not reporting it to their healthcare providers. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) studies has shown a “36% increase of CAM therapy use in the United States in 2002, with a 38% increase noted by 2007, resulting in thirty-four billion dollars being spent on this alternative medicine and practice,” (Artani, Mhatre, & Sansgiry, 2013; National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2013) prompting this question, why are people keeping their CAM usage a secret? Should the word about CAM therapy be increased among healthcare providers and patients? If CAM therapy is affective and could decrease the cost of our strained healthcare budget, why has this century old dialogue not been improved. Could the loss of money for big industry drug distributers be behind the quieting voice of CAM therapy usage?

third (38.3 percent) of U.S. adult used some form of CAM therapies. CAM is defined as

Pain is one of the major reasons people seek for health care. Millions of people suffer from acute and chronic pain such as arthritis, migraine headache, and back pain. Pain can affect not only the individual experiencing it, but also every person around them (Lewis, Dirksen, Heitkemper, & Bucher, 2014). Many people are seeking medical procedure and medications to decrease the pain. Pain can be managed by both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic methods based on pain assessment. Patients with pain often dissatisfied with pharmacological methods and turn to non-pharmacological method to manage their symptoms (Lizhou, Skinner, McDonough, Mabire, & Baxter, 2015), therefore, nurse should have basic knowledge

The use of CAM can emphasize the patient-physician or nurse relationship and makes great use of all complementary therapies, this will include evidence-based medicine as well as corresponding

If these medicines were considered factual, the biomedical scene could change the medical community significantly. However to find if CAM treatments are effective, one needs to prove it. On the other hand, this has become significantly difficult in the medical and scientific field. Although the amount of funding and users of alternative medicine is on the rise, scientists continue to hold a strong interpretation of CAM being unproven with insufficient evidence to believe these medicines are working (Keshet, Y. (2009), p. 148-149.). Many questions can be formed on the topic of the approval of CAM. Such as, why is alternative medicine not more popular? Why won’t scientists approve of the validity of CAM, and what is holding it back? And finally the belief that society holds on alternative medicine might be considered in the medical and scientific community as unprovable regarding the placebo effect; however, if people create the idea of the medicines working for them through their treatments in which evidence is formed through the improvement of the individual, would that be considered sufficient evidence of the