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Alternative Approaches to Healing

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

A seminal article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1993 described alternative medicine’s enormous impact on U.S. health care. The authors reported that in 1990 Americans made 425 million visits to alternative providers, such as chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists, and naturopathic physicians, for charges totaling $12 billion. Since then, complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies have become even more popular, with four in 10 Americans using CAM in 1997.

Despite the popularity of CAM, especially in the western states and among women, little is known about the effectiveness of most alternative treatments. And almost nothing is known about their cost-effectiveness compared to conventional therapies. Patients would benefit from having scientific evidence to inform their health care choices; insurers, policymakers, and managers could use such information to guide decisions about integrating alternative medicine into the health care system.

CAM researchers at Group Health Center for Health Studies (CHS) work together with investigators at the University of Washington (UW), Harvard University, and Kaiser Permanente. Many of the studies concern back pain, which accounts for a large portion of visits to alternative providers.

"Our research on massage for chronic back pain resulted in a change in the Group Health massage benefit," says Dan Cherkin, PhD, associate director and senior investigator at CHS. "With a physician’s referral, patients can now get coverage for massage for chronic myofascial pain. We hope to collaborate with other existing research programs at CHS to evaluate how effective CAM may be for other difficult problems, such as anxiety, depression, and irritable bowel syndrome." 

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

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