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.

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  • Recent Comments

    Evidence supports mind-body therapies for headache

    A review published in American Family Physician reveals that mind-body therapies, alone or in combination, significantly reduce symptoms of migraine, tension, and mixed-type headaches.

    Here’s the bottom line.

    Migraine headache

    • Reanalysis of results (meta-analysis) from 35 studies of combined relaxation training and biofeedback show similar improvement compared 32 studies of beta blockers and 31 studies of calcium channel blockers.
    • A meta-analysis of 5 studies show that thermal biofeedback improves migraine symptoms 37%.

    Tension headache

    • A meta-analysis of 35 studies of behavioral treatments show a 37% to 50% reduction of symptoms in treated patients compared to a 2% to 9% reduction in untreated patients.

    Mixed-type and chronic headaches

    • A meta-analysis of 7 studies found that cognitive behavior therapy improves headache activity 49%.

    The authors conclude, “Despite [the] evidence, mind-body therapies are an underused treatment,… possibly because of lack of training, insufficient time, or lack of awareness of the evidence base supporting these therapies.”

    11/20/07 21:41 JR

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