Effect of Complementary and Alternative Medicine on Pain Among Inpatients

The proposed study has 3 aims: 1) quantitatively describe a model for delivering complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies to understand the selection of patients and CAM therapies used for pain management, 2) examine the effects of selected CAM therapies on immediate change in pain, and 3) examine the effects of selected CAM therapies on duration of pain change. Positive results from this study will assist hospitals in the integration of usual care and CAM therapy for pain reduction. Findings may also drive future research on the cost effectiveness of these therapies for pain management, as well as the impact on patient outcomes such as length of stay and use of narcotics.