Evidence Based Alternative Medicines in Pain Management

Pain is undoubtedly unpleasant sensation that affects the life style of a large population around the world. Several therapeutic approaches are used for the effective management of pain including use of drugs and alternate measures. This special issue describes the various events in tradi-tional/alternative systems treatment for the management of painful condition. The article entitled " Laser Acupuncture for Postoperative Pain Management in Cats " demonstrated that laser acupuncture significantly reduces postoperative analgesic requirements in cats undergoing ovariohysterectomy. Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common complaints in the emergency department (ED) but the available therapies are having serious side effects. The clinical study in an article " Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture for Acute Low Back Pain in Emergency Department: A Pilot Cohort Study " showed that acupuncture offered significant pain reduction in low back pain in patients treated in emergency department without any side effect. Postoperative pain is very frequent and hard to treat. Dezocine is an opioid í µí¼‡ receptor partial agonist/antagonist widely used because of its potency and safety. The clinical studies in the article " Dezocine Prevents Postopera-tive Hyperalgesia in Patients Undergoing Open Abdominal Surgery " showed that dezocine offers a significant antihyper-algesic and analgesic effect in patients undergoing elective open gastrectomy for up to 48 h postoperatively. The review article " Complementary and Alternative Medicine for the Management of Cervical Radiculopathy: An Overview of Systematic Reviews " concluded that current systematic reviews showed potential advantages to CAM for CR in alleviating neck pain or related symptoms. Due to the frequently poor methodological quality of primary studies, the authors suggested that the conclusions should be treated with caution for future clinical practice. Approximately 75–90% of cancer patients experienced pain while 50% of patients are not satisfied with pain treatment that could affect the cortisol level. The article of this issue " Decreased Cortisol and Pain in Breast Cancer: Biofield Therapy Potential " exhibited marked reduction in cortisol concentration treated with bioenergy, suggesting reduction in stress due to pain. The review article of Lo et al. " The Effects of Acupuncture on Cerebral and Muscular Microcirculation: A Systematic Review of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Studies " based on available literature believed that research utilizing Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Studies to investigate the hemody-namics of acupuncture presently lacks in scope and quality. Improved designs, for example, placebo-controlled, random-ized trials, and standardized intervention reporting could enhance study quality. In this …