Researchers at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill, reviewed active and passive treatment programs.

Here’s what we know.

Active treatments shown to be effective

  • Physical therapy-directed exercise programs
  • Core stabilization
  • Mechanical diagnosis and therapy (MDT)
  • Yoga is the most effective nonphysician-directed active treatment approach to nonspecific low back pain comparing other CAM treatments.

Passive treatment shown to be effective

  • Acupuncture is a medical practitioner-directed passive treatment has been shown to be a good adjunct treatment.

The bottom line?

These are the conclusions reached by the authors. However, they also call for more studies to confirm these data.

2/20/11 22:07 JR

Hi, I’m JR

John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.