Information for Professionals/Providers

The Indiana Pain Initiative is committed to providing Hoosier healthcare providers with the most current knowledge and tools to assist in relieving the suffering associated with pain for patients and their caregivers.

Pain Practice Change Program
Through a grant from the Alliance of State Pain Initiatives and the Lance Armstrong Foundation, INPI has been implementing a practice change program Indiana during 2007. Staff the Alliance of State Pain Initiative provided training for this program. The project’s purpose is improve pain management practices in health care settings.

The Role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Pain Management
Note: The following information provides an overview of complementary and alternative therapies. As with conventional therapies, INPI cannot recommend specific treatments fro pain. Patients should consult with their own healthcare professional and other practitioners about interventions that may be of benefit to them.

The following information is from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) Website at www.nccam.nih.gov. NCCAM was established by Congressional mandate in October 1998. This mission of NCCAM is to support rigorous research on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), to train researcher in CAM, and to disseminate information to the public and professionals on which CAM modalities work, which do not and why.

NCCAM recognized 5 major domains of complementary and alternative medicine:

• Alternative Medical Systems
  There are complete systems of theory and practice that are independent of conventional Western, biomedical approach to care. These include Ayurveda, Native American, Aboriginal, African, Middle-Eastern, Tibetan, Central and South American cultures, traditional Chinese medicine, Homeopathy, and Naturopathy.
  
• Mind-Body Interventions
  These are inventions that facilitate the mind’s ability to affect bodily functions and symptoms. Many, such as patient education and cognitive behavioral approaches are now considered “mainstream.” Other interventions in this domain include mediation, hypnosis, dance, music, art therapy, prayer and mental healing.
  
• Biologically-Based Treatments
  These treatments are natural and biologically based intervention of care. Included in domain are herbal treatments, special diets, orthomolecular therapies using mega doses of vitamins, magnesium, or melatonin, and individual biological therapies such as shark cartilage or laetrile.
  
• Manipulative and Body-Based Methods
  These are interventions based on manipulation and/or movements of the body or spine including Chiropractic, osteopathy, and massage therapies.
  
• Energy Therapies
  These therapies are biofield therapies, which focus on energy fields within the body; and electromagnetic therapies, which focus on the fields outside of the body. Theses include but are not limited Ti Qi Gong, Bio-energy healing, Therapeutics Touch, Reiki, and Healing Touch.

Professionals and the lay public increasingly recognize the importance of “complementary” and “alternative” therapies in the role of pain management. Complimentary therapies are used in addition to conventional treatments and alternative therapies are generally used instead of conventional treatments.