Dr Wayne Jonas Discusses the Role of Integrative Health in Treating Pain

Transcript

What role does integrative health play in helping patients manage pain?

So, I that's a great question. And I would say that the short answer is that integrative health practices and nonpharmacological approaches for chronic pain have a central role. All you have to do is look at the current national guidelines from almost anywhere—the American College of Physicians, the CDC, the NIH [National Institute of Health], JCAHO [Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations]—they all recommend that non pharmacological approaches and be integrated with standard conventional drug approaches for the treatment of chronic pain. And in fact, many of them say that for many chronic conditions, they should be the lead approach for chronic pain.

And so, I think that it's imperative for anybody that deals with people with chronic pain—And that's a lot of people. There's 100 million people in the country that suffer with chronic pain—that they learn these skills and they make them a part of their standard practice.