NCCIH: A Government Agency That Should Be Shut Down

"Basically, this review is most consistent with none of them working for chronic pain. However, NCCIH can’t admit that, which is why the NCCIH has discussed how to do 'innovative clinical trials' by using 'pragmatic clinical trials to address questions about the integration of complementary health approaches into health care systems, or to study the effectiveness of complementary or integrative approaches in comparison to standard care.' Unfortunately, pragmatic trials are trials that are done only after more rigorous trials actually show that an intervention works, with the intent to see how it works in the 'real world.' Doing pragmatic trials of treatments not yet shown to work is putting the cart before the horse."

“Non-pharmacological treatments for pain” ≠ CAM, no matter how much NCCIH wishes it so