The C.A.M. Report
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Fair, Balanced, and to the Point
  • About this web log

    This blog ran from 2006 to 2016 and was intended as an objective and dispassionate source of information on the latest CAM research. Since my background is in pharmacy and allopathic medicine, I view all CAM as advancing through the development pipeline to eventually become integrated into mainstream medical practice. Some will succeed while others fail. But all are treated fairly here.

  • About the author

    John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.

  • Common sense considerations

    The material on this weblog is for informational purposes. It is not medical advice or counsel. Be smart, consult your health professional before using CAM.

  • Recent Posts

  • Recent Comments

    Time to define back pain

    Dr. Jason Jones is the Clinic Director of SpinaCare. In an earlier post he commented that the validity of the outcomes at the end of clinical research depends on asking the appropriate question at the start.

    Case in point: Back pain.

    Dr. Jones says, “What kind of answers would we get if we studied the ‘best’ treatment for ‘chest pain’?”

    Obviously, since “chest pain” is a symptom for a range of conditions (eg, heart attack, gastric reflux, trauma, angina) that respond to different treatments, it’s insufficient as a primary study outcome unless the underlying condition is known.

    Accordingly, here is a general breakdown of different low back pain diagnoses.

    • Disc (internal derangement, radiculopathy, etc.)
    • Dynamic instability
    • Joint dysfunction
    • Degenerative disease
    • Psychological overlay

    The bottom line?
    Next time you see a study of treatment for back pain or read a claim for its treatment, look for information on the underlying disease.

    More comments from Dr. Jones on the criteria for defining low back pain are here.

    4/26/07 20:18 JR

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