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

    Treating chronic pain in children with rheumatic disease

    Pain is the most common symptom of rheumatic disease (mostly arthritis) in children. This review on Medscape includes cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and physical therapy/exercise as complementary options to other, mostly pharmacological treatments.

    For the management of chronic and recurrent pain, CBT has 2 objectives.

    • Facilitate coping with pain or modifying the patient’s pain experience
    • Increase the ability to adapt and minimize pain-related or “sick” role behavior

    Physical therapy and exercise provide some improvement in pain and do not worsen the disease. Exercise therapy is also associated with decreases in affected joint count and disease severity.

    The article concludes, “There are no current detailed treatment guidelines for treatment of pain in children with rheumatic diseases. More aggressive pain treatments should be considered in those patients who continue to have significant residual pain.”

    The American Pain Society published an algorithm for pain treatment in 2002. It addresses management in general terms, and states that nonpharmacological modalities should be used as much as possible.

    3/28/07 22:53 JR

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