A Systematic Review of Practiced-Based Research of Complementary and Integrative Health Therapies as Provided for Pain Management in Clinical Settings: Recommendations for the Future and a Call to Action

Abstract

Objective: The goal of this systematic review was to evaluate practice-based, real-world research of individualized complementary and integrative health (CIH) therapies for pain as provided in CIH outpatient clinics.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted on articles in PubMed, Ovid, Cochrane, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase published through December 2020. The study was listed in the PROSPERO database (CRD42020159193). Major categories of variables extracted included study details and demographics, interventions, and outcomes.

Results: The literature search yielded 3,316 records, with 264 assessed for full-text review. Of those, 23 studies (including ∼8,464 patients) were specific to pain conditions as a main outcome. Studies included chiropractic, acupuncture, multimodal individualized intervention/programs, physiotherapy, and anthroposophic medicine therapy. Retention rates ranged from 53% to 91%, with studies offering monetary incentives showing the highest retention. The 0-10 numerical rating scale was the most common pain questionnaire (n = 10; 43% of studies), with an average percent improvement across all studies and time points of 32% (range: 18-60%).

Conclusions: Findings from this systematic review of practice-based, real-word research indicate that CIH therapies exert positive effects on various pain outcomes. Although all studies reported beneficial impacts on one or more pain outcomes, the heterogeneous nature of the studies limits our overall understanding of CIH as provided in clinical settings. Accordingly, we present numerous recommendations to improve publication reporting and guide future research. Our call to action is that future practice-based CIH research is needed, but it should be more expansive and conducted in association with a CIH scientific society with academic and health care members.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04880733.

Keywords: Acupuncture; Chiropractic; Complementary and Integrative Health; Integrative Medicine; Practice-Based Research; Systematic Review.

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Figures

Figure 1.

PRISMA flow diagram.

Figure 2.

Number of publications per year included in the systematic review.