Revised pain management assessment and management standards1 by The Joint Commission require accredited hospitals to "provide nonpharmacologic pain treatment modalities" as a necessary performance element. The new standard, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2018, is a clear recognition not only of the dangers of opioids and other pain medications, but also the value of conservative / nondrug care.
Acupuncture is included among the potential nondrug treatment options hospitals can utilize, as the commission's 2015 revision stipulated, when it first defined nonpharmacologic approaches:
"Both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic strategies have a role in the management of pain ... strategies may include the following: Nonpharmacologic strategies: physical modalities (for example, acupuncture therapy, chiropractic therapy, osteopathic manipulative treatment, massage therapy, and physical therapy), relaxation therapy, and cognitive behavior therapy." [Italics added]2
Commenting on the 2017 revision, Kory Ward-Cook, PhD, CAE, chief executive officer of the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), stated:
"As rates of addiction to, and deaths from, prescription opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone continue to rise, awareness and incorporation of effective, non-pharmacological, non-invasive therapies like acupuncture is more important than ever. The NCCAOM Board Commissioners commends The Joint Commission on these timely and crucial pain management standards, which will bring greater and much needed access to qualified licensed acupuncturists to help alleviate and manage pain."3
The 2017 revised standards do not prohibit commission-accredited hospitals from pharmacologic approaches; however, the standards emphasize safe opioid and non-opioid prescribing and use, patient education on pain management plans of care and the potential side effects of treatment. The standards also make pain assessment and pain management "an organizational priority" to be adopted by hospitals.
Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 21,000 health care organizations and programs throughout the U.S. To learn more about the commission, click here.
References
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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