EDITORIAL


Complementary Medicine and Pain Treatment: One Size does not Fit All



Marco LuchettiAddress: The Open Pain JournalDepartment of Anesthesia Intensive Care & Pain Management “A. Manzoni” General Hospital Via dell’Eremo 9/11, 23900 Lecco Italy Fax: (410) 706-0865 +39 0341 489984 Tel: +39 0341 489984 Fax: +39 0341 489983 E-mails: m.luchetti@fastwebnet.it m.luchetti@ospedale.lecco.it



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© 2010 Marco Luchetti .

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.



Editorial

In this special issue eminent researchers in the field review the use of some among the most used complementary therapies and techniques for the treatment of pain. In the last decade, researchers have begun to understand better the complex interplay of neurons and messenger molecules that leads to the perception of pain. However, they are just now starting to explain how emotional affects and cognitive functions contribute to the experience of pain [1]. Since there are so many factors affecting pain perception and experience, the application of a traditional therapeutic model may fail as it does not consider the multidimensional nature of pain [2]. The keys to improving pain control are: good communication, comprehensive assessment of the patient, and thorough explanation of treatment options. Effective communication between doctor and patient can provide a more complete picture of the patient ’ s pain experience. According to this perspective, complementary and alternative treatments are often incorporated into the care offered by multidisciplinary pain management teams, and include a wide range of techniques [3]. Voltaire stated that “doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing”. Nowadays, doctors know almost everything about the drugs they prescribe, much about the diseases they cure, but still almost nothing about the ill person. What Edison stated at the beginning of the last century is just what is practiced nowadays by the so-called holistic medicine, the medicine of the wholeness, considering human beings as an undivided whole of body-mind-spirit. On this concept of unity all unconventional medicines are based. Frustration due to poor experience of pain management may lead patients to consult alternative practitioners as a last resort [4]. Alternative therapies can offer patients an individual approach tailored to their specific needs. Patients may perceive benefit from an empathetic approach and the feeling that their pain is taken seriously [5]. Actually, the principle critique against alternative therapies deals with their lack of scientific rigor. Evidence is crucial, but it needs to be based on solid scientific foundations [6]. Hippocrates used to say: “There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance”. Placebo effect is often alleged by conventional medicine as an explanation of unconventional therapies results. Yet, it could be suspected that placebo effect is advocated to cover the discomfort that scientific minds experience when faced with the unusual [7]....