Nov. 21, 2017 - Can acupuncture and yoga help to fight the opioid epidemic? These and other integrative medicine approaches have shown at least preliminary evidence of effectiveness in pain management, according to an article in the December issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia -- a special thematic issue addressing the opioid crisis.
"In the current opioid crisis era, many integrative medical therapies can be used as complements to mainstream medicine to address pain and reduce opioid abuse and addiction-related disease," write Yuan-Chi Lin, MD, MPH, and colleagues of Harvard Medical School. In the special issue, they and other anesthesia and pain medicine physicians share evidence on this and other potentially effective strategies to reducing reliance on opioids to treat chronic and postoperative pain.
Complementary Medicine as Alternatives to Opioids - What's the Evidence? Dr. Lin and coauthors reviewed and analyzed current evidence on integrative medicine therapies--also called complementary and alternative medicine--for the treatment of pain. "Integrative medicine for pain can play a major role in reducing the frequency and amount of opioid usage," the researchers write.
The analysis included a total of 32 studies evaluating seven different types of integrative medicine therapies for pain. Acupuncture was the treatment showing the strongest evidence for effectiveness in reducing pain. Overall there was "strong positive evidence" showing a beneficial effect of acupuncture for the treatment of chronic pain. There were also studies showing that acupuncture reduced the dose of opioids needed to control pain after surgery, with reduction in opioid-related side effects.
Most of the other therapies studied showed "positive preliminary evidence" of effectiveness in pain treatment. These included yoga, relaxation techniques (such as mindfulness meditation), tai chi, massage therapy, and spinal manipulation. Few of these studies addressed the effects on use of prescription medications in general or opioids in particular. There was conflicting evidence on the pain-reducing effectiveness of the supplements glucosamine and chondroitin for knee pain.
The authors acknowledge some important limitations of the current evidence on integrative therapies for pain. The studies in the review varied in terms of the methods used and the types of pain studied, in addition to the special challenges of studying the effectiveness of alternative therapies (such as controlling for the placebo effect). While emphasizing the need for additional studies, Dr. Lin and coauthors conclude: "The consensus and results of this review suggest that complementary health approaches can help to improve pain and reduce opioid use."
The special issue also includes current evidence reviews on topics of special interest, including other types of medications that may provide alternatives to opioids for treatment of chronic pain; new types of pain medications under development, including opioid and non-opioid drugs; strategies to help reduce the risk of chronic opioid use after surgery; and opioid-sparing strategies to reduce the need for opioids after surgery.
Anesthesiology and pain medicine specialists play a critical role in developing effective strategies for responding to the opioid crisis. according to an introductory article by Guest Editors Honorio T. Benzon, MD, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, and T. Anthony Anderson, MD, PhD, of Stanford University School of Medicine "We wanted to show to the medical community that we, anesthesiologists, can play an active role in identifying and solving the issues," the Guest Editors write. "We are the leaders in opioid prescription...and should take the lead in solving the problem."
Anesthesia & Analgesia is published by Wolters Kluwer.
DOI: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000002579
View the article collection from Anesthesia & Analgesia.
###
About Anesthesia & Analgesia Anesthesia & Analgesia was founded in 1922 and was issued bi-monthly until 1980, when it became a monthly publication. A&A is the leading journal for anesthesia clinicians and researchers and includes more than 500 articles annually in all areas related to anesthesia and analgesia, such as cardiovascular anesthesiology, patient safety, anesthetic pharmacology, and pain management. The journal is published on behalf of the IARS by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), a division of Wolters Kluwer Health.
About the IARS The International Anesthesia Research Society is a nonpolitical, not-for-profit medical society founded in 1922 to advance and support scientific research and education related to anesthesia, and to improve patient care through basic research. The IARS contributes nearly $1 million annually to fund anesthesia research; provides a forum for anesthesiology leaders to share information and ideas; maintains a worldwide membership of more than 15,000 physicians, physician residents, and others with doctoral degrees, as well as health professionals in anesthesia related practice; sponsors the SmartTots initiative in partnership with the FDA; supports the resident education initiative OpenAnesthesia; and publishes two journals, Anesthesia & Analgesia and A&A Case Reports.
About Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.
Wolters Kluwer reported 2016 annual revenues of €4.3 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs 19,000 people worldwide.
Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading global provider of information and point of care solutions for the healthcare industry. For more information about our products and the organization, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com/, follow @WKHealth or @Wolters_Kluwer on Twitter, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, or follow WoltersKluwerComms on YouTube.
For more information about Wolters Kluwer's solutions and organization, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
###
Journal
Anesthesia & Analgesia