I'm guessing that this won't be the most popular thread on here, but this topic comes up frequently in medical care. I think everyone who goes through multiple treatments for back pain should be aware of the topics discussed in these articles to properly assess what's working and what's not. It also helps to have this knowledge when thinking about the next step.
While it's not always possible to get good double-blinded, controlled clinical trials for every possible treatment, it's important to understand that these trials are the only way to unequivocally prove a treatment's efficacy.
In other words, if it has been tested and proven to be no more effective than placebo, think very carefully before wasting time, money and hope. On the other hand, if it has been shown to be better than placebo, it may be worth a shot.
I particularly like the editor's note on the Yahoo article that $2.5 billion has been spent testing alternative medicine without any conclusive proof of effectiveness. That's $2.5B on the research, not the total dollar amount spent by us patients in desperate searches for relief. I'm sure that's many times greater.
Maybe our personal and tax dollars would be better spent on more traditional research.
http://tinyurl.com/ycb6zx4
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091110/...medies_placebo
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/co...ebo_Effect.asp