Research Roundup
"Research Roundup" presents examples of NCCAM-funded research recently published in peer-reviewed journals listed in the National Library of Medicine's PubMed database.
Integrating CAM and Conventional Medicine
In the past 10 years, CAM has become both more popular with the general public and better accepted by more physicians. It will be some time, however, before CAM is integrated into the mainstream health care system. In a commentary on an article about integrative medicine in the July/August 2005 edition of Health Affairs, three authors from NCCAM—Richard L. Nahin, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Carol Pontzer, Ph.D.; and Margaret Chesney, Ph.D.--also observe that the public's CAM preferences are not completely in line with the scientific community's research priorities, and vice versa. More research on CAM therapies is needed, as well as improved communication between the lay public and health professionals. Integrating useful CAM therapies into mainstream medicine holds the potential for "maximizing health care quality," the authors note. However, they see it as a slow process that must rely on solid research into the risks and benefits of CAM therapies.
Comparing Four Approaches for Low-Back Pain
Low-back pain is the second-most-frequent reason that people seek primary medical care. Direct costs of care for this condition range from $25 billion to $33 billion each year. In this study, published in the May 2005 issue of Medical Care, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, led by Gerald F. Kominski, Ph.D., compared costs and clinical outcomes of four different approaches to treating low-back pain: medical care by a primary care physician; medical care plus physical therapy; chiropractic care (spinal manipulation and other adjustments); and chiropractic care along with one or more additional treatments: heat, cold, ultrasound, or electrical muscle stimulation.
Costs of care (except drug costs) and disability ratings were tracked for 654 patients whose ratings of disability were similar. Medical care alone was the least expensive treatment, but its cost nearly doubled when physical therapy was added. Chiropractic care and chiropractic plus other methods cost more than medical care alone and did not produce better outcomes than medical care.
Study in Mice of a Formula for Peanut Allergy
More than 3 million Americans are allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. More people die of allergic shock from peanuts than of allergic shock from all other foods. The number of cases of peanut allergies has risen sharply in recent years, and it is an allergy that a person rarely grows out of. Currently, the only way to manage the allergy is to completely avoid peanuts, products containing peanuts (such as peanut oil), or products that may contain traces of peanuts or peanut residue. An earlier NCCAM-supported study indicated that a Chinese herbal formula (FAHF-1) may reduce this allergic reaction and block its life-threatening symptoms in mice. However, the formula was complex, difficult to produce in quantity, and contained two potentially dangerous ingredients. The team—Kamal D. Srivastava, M.Phil., and colleagues at Mount Sinai School of Medicine—developed a simpler formula (FAHF-2) that also cut out those two ingredients. They found that it had the same effects in mice as FAHF-1 and continued to be effective for up to 5 weeks after treatment. Their report appears in the January 2005 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.For more findings, see the NCCAM Grantee Publications Database. Sorting by "Publication Date" yields the most recent records first.
