Facing the consequences of an opioid crisis and the fallout from new opioid prescribing guidelines that are more safety-based, the burden on clinicians to access therapies for persistent, disabling pain is growing. Thus, the spotlight on integrative therapies is more intense. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (division of NIH) found yoga was one of the top 10 complementary health approaches in 2015. A growing evidence base supports yoga for neck and back pain and fibromyalgia. Yoga enhances self-care skills and regulates common symptoms associated with pain such as anxiety, depression and insomnia. Clinician awareness about the various types of yoga is generally incomplete and complicate referring patients to a well-trained instructor with knowledge about the complexity of chronic pain to ensure safe practices. Therefore, we developed a yoga program to meet the needs and abilities of people with chronic pain. We will describe this eight-week program and our current outcome data, highlighting the diversity among participants. Like yoga, acupuncture therapy has existed for thousands of years—long before the birth of Western conventional medicine. In the last 50 years, its evidence base has grown substantially so that it is the most broadly studied among Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies with a rich basic science foundation and a growing body of clinical trials demonstrating efficacy for chronic pain. In this panel we will highlight some of this evidence and describe how the VA Health Care System has integrated acupuncture into its offerings for veterans with chronic pain.

In this webinar, we will use case examples to demonstrate the importance of individualizing the choice of CAM therapy for specific patients and also to identify what therapies would not be appropriate for certain types of patients.