Behavioral Health

In response to the need for pain relief therapies that don’t involve opioid medications, acupuncture is one recommended alternative in addition to cognitive behavioral therapy, physical therapy, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS) announced in January 2020 that it would cover acupuncture for chronic low back pain in Medicare beneficiaries, citing the potential for acupuncture to reduce overuse of and addiction to opioids. Although acupuncture has been proposed to reduce exposure to opioids, few studies have examined its effect on lowering prescribed opioid use because is very difficult to study due to variations in applied techniques and a strong potential for placebo effects. This study compared outcomes in people who used acupuncture to those who used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and and/or physical therapy (PT).

Seeing health more broadly is key to improving it. We conducted a nationally representative survey of adults to establish benchmarks and guide efforts.

As one of the most common and disabling conditions among adults, low back pain can be treated in numerous ways. However, many treatments have proven ineffective and potentially harmful. Published guidelines have been updated to avoid low-value services like overuse of diagnostic imaging, opioids, spinal injections, and surgery. Researchers examined trends over nine years to see how quickly providers were moving away from these low-value services. Understanding treatment trends is helpful when designing holistic programs for low back pain.