Managing back pain without costly medications: High-touch Integrative Medicine therapies may help

A new pilot study conducted with assembly workers at the Ford Motor Company in Louisville, KY focused on acute, work-related low back pain. Results of that study indicate that high-touch Integrative Medicine (IM) therapies can help employees manage back pain without the costly medications typically associated with managing their pain.

Back pain is one of the leading causes of job-related disability among U.S. workers, and contributes to lost productivity and high medical and pharmaceutical costs for employers and their employees. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has estimated that chronic employee pain costs employers as much as $100 billion a year in direct medical expenses, lost workdays, reduced productivity, compensation payments, and legal charges.

This new study found that Integrative Medicine utilizing acupuncture and mind/body therapies, in conjunction with conventional medicine, provided the same outcomes as conventional back pain therapies, but reduced the use of pain medications among participants by 58 percent.

Conducted at the Ford Motor Kentucky Truck Plant, the study included a pilot group of assembly line employees diagnosed with low back pain. This group was divided into two subgroups and both groups received care at the onsite Ford clinic. One group received conventional pain management therapies, including pain medications. The second group utilized integrative therapies, including acupuncture and relaxation/meditation CDs, which were provided by Healthyroads, a subsidiary of American Specialty Health (ASH), to manage stress and pain. Both of the groups received treatments over a six-week period, with a 12-week follow-up.

"While the sample size was insufficient to adequately estimate the effect of the IM intervention on disability or absenteeism, the results have very positive implications for employers looking to manage their pharmacy costs associated with low back pain," said Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD(hc), a co-principal investigator on the study. "A significant reduction in prescription pain medication intake was observed with the IM sample group. This suggests a potential economic benefit to companies who include Integrative Medicine in their health plans, and potential health and safety benefits to workers who use IM in place of narcotics and other pain medicines known to have adverse psychological and physical side effects.

"A further interesting observation is that the Healthyroads program was the one component of the intervention that was associated with a significant increase in meditation practice and a small but statistically significant improvement in four of the major outcome measures," added Pelletier.