Dr. Helene Langevin, Director of NCCIH, recently sat down with Dr. Stephani Sutherland and RELIEF, a publication of the International Association for the Study of Pain, to talk about research on complementary and integrative approaches for pain. Pain is an important research focus for NCCIH, Dr. Langevin explained in the RELIEF podcast, because it's an area where a lot of complementary and integrative health interventions are being used. A large percentage of the research NCCIH funds at other institutions is on pain, and the studies that NCCIH carries out in its own labs focus on understanding pain mechanisms, especially how the brain modulates pain. In addition, NCCIH is very much involved with the NIH HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-termSM) Initiative, with an emphasis on nonpharmacologic approaches to both chronic pain and opiate use disorders, and is leading a collaboration with other National Institutes of Health agencies and the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to test nondrug approaches for managing pain in the military and veterans' health care organizations. The opiate crisis, Dr. Langevin believes, "has put pain front and center in our awareness; we definitely need more research on this. And especially approaches that treat the whole person and that are based not only on helping the patients cope with the pain, but also really make progress and become healthier in the process." |
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