Chronic Pain:Alternative Pain Therapies

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Chronic Pain

  1. Start Here
  2. Pain Tests, Doctors, and Attitudes
  3. Low Back Pain
  4. Headaches and Migraines
  5. Arthritis
  6. Living With Fibromyalgia
  7. Cancer Pain
  8. Drugs: Relief and Addiction
  9. Alternative Pain Therapies
  10. Coping With Chronic Pain

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What You Need to Know

Video: Perspectives on Alternative Pain Therapies
  • Alternative Pain Therapies Doctor-Patient Video
    Complementary Approaches
    How patients use alternative medicine
    ( :47 )
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  • Alternative Pain Therapies Finding The Right Practitioner Doctor-Patient Video
    Alternative Treatments
    Which ones are right for you?
    ( :52 )
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  • Pain Management Cognitive Therapy Doctor-Patient Video
    Your Mind Can Lessen Pain
    How CBT helps
    ( 1:54 )
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  • Back Pain Yoga Mind-Body Awareness Doctor-Patient Video
    Yoga Helped
    How one patient found relief
    ( :40 )
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How Two Patients Control Their Pain Through Meditation

Learning to relax their minds has helped these women ease their pain
When Dorothy Teesdale's doctor diagnosed her with peripheral neuropathy, he told her there was nothing she could do but live with it. "Being a nurse I said, 'No, that's not enough'," says Teesdale, who has now been living with the condition for more than 10 years. Teesdale began to use many of the techniques of mindfulness-based stress reduction to control her own pain.  Read More

Change the Way You Think About Pain With Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Using CBT "coping thoughts," pain patients can reduce their response to pain
People suffering from chronic pain can spend a lot of time thinking negatively about their pain, growing concerned, anxious, or pessimistic. Those thoughts can actually increase pain, so cognitive-behavioral therapists work with patients to reframe some of the negative thoughts surrounding their pain. By identifying and changing negative thought patterns, patients can actually help relieve their pain...  Read More

How Acupuncture Helped: One Pain Patient's Story

An actress overcame needle phobia and found relief from constant pain
Former actress Adryenn Ashley, 39, was standing in for Sarah Michelle Gellar on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer when she fell off a truck and severely injured her ankle. A friend suggested that she try acupuncture for the pain, which lasted long after the injury. "I'm needle phobic, the thought of someone sticking a needle in me did not make me happy," she remembers. But the pain gave her little choice...  Read More