Recent NICE guidelines have recommended that patients suffering from persistent, non-specific low back pain should be offered ‘one of the following treatment options, taking into account patient preference: an exercise programme, a course of manual therapy, or a course of acupuncture’.1 No previous document by NICE has been so explicitly positive about complementary/alternative medicine (CAM). This, it seems, is a good occasion to review the totality of the recommendations from NICE guidelines in respect to CAM.
As of July 2009, NICE have published 88 clinical guidelines.2 We have reviewed 83 of these (five have been replaced and were no longer available). The majority of …