The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) in partnership with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking acupuncturists for a new Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA)—a Randomized Control Trial (RCT). The study will evaluate the impact of, and strategies to best implement acupuncture treatment of older adults (65 years and older) with chronic low back pain (CLBP).1 Low back pain is a common reason for lost work, and the second most common cause of disability in the U.S.2
This announcement comes just months after new director Helene M. Langevin, a supporter of acupuncture, took the reins at NCCIH. This RCT is part of the "Helping to End Addiction Long-term" (HEAL), an initiative to speed scientific solutions to the national opioid public health crisis, which reportedly causes 46 deaths a day.3
The FOA requests "investigators with expertise and insights into this area of evidence-based pain management to begin to consider applying. In addition, collaborative investigations combining expertise in acupuncture, pain management, and pragmatic clinical trials will be encouraged, and these investigators should also begin considering applying for this application."
It's important to note that this study will aid in future Medicare coverage: "By addressing gaps in the literature on the benefits and harms of acupuncture in individuals 65=/+, it is anticipated that evidence on improvements in health outcomes derived from this initiative would assist CMS in determining Medicare coverage for acupuncture in CLBP."1
The first estimated application date for this study is Feb 15, 2019. The first possible award date is Sept 1, 2019 (with the earliest start date of Sept 20, 2019). Awards for this study will will initially support a one-year milestone-driven planning phase (UG3), with possible transition to an implementation phase (UH3) of up to three years.
For more information about this study please visit https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-AT-19-005.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter.
References
Editor's Note: Correction for Jan 2018 (Vol. 19, Issue 01): "Returning to Balance: Treating Gastric Reflux With TCM," by Craig Williams, LAc, AHG. The article was printed with the error Protein Pump Inhibitor, instead of Proton Pump Inhibitor, aslo known as PPI. The online and digital versions have been corrected.
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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