Pain in Traditional Chinese Medicine – Why Diverse Approaches?

Pain is the most common symptom suffered by millions of people every year and is associated with high economic burden everywhere in the world. Lost worker productivity, rehabilitation costs and the treatment costs cause a lot of financial and emotional stress to pain patients. A recent Institute of Medicine report indicates that pain is a significant public health problem and it costs the society $560-$635 billion annually. The incidence of pain is quite high when compared to other major health conditions. Over 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain and that number is more than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. The most common type of pain are low back pain (27%), severe headache or migraine pain (15%), neck pain (15%), and facial ache or pain (4%). While it can be a disease by itself as in the above conditions, it can also be associated with many injuries or certain diseases. Conventional Medicine manages pain with either non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or in severe cases with either prescription opioid pain relievers or in some cases with surgery. These approaches have many challenges such as poor tolerance, abuse and overdose of prescription painkillers.

Integrative approaches such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) could offer benefit to the pain sufferers with acupuncture, herbs, cupping, moxibustion, diet and lifestyle advices. However, prior to treatment, the diagnosis of pain and understanding of the pathomechanism of each type of pain is considered very important. For example, a patient with low back pain could have Qi and Blood stagnation, Kidney Yin Deficiency, or Bi Syndrome. The therapeutic approach adopted for each of these types will be different and therefore may need more than just acupuncture for a successful outcome. Just to illustrate the variety of pathomechanisms, the authors will present a retrospective data analysis conducted from patient records. Specifically, we will present he different TCM diagnoses that were given to different pain conditions that were treated during health events for the underserved and give some examples of how the treatment differed for the same type of pain from a Western perspective.