massage therapy journal

keeping you in touch.

  

NCCAM

www.nccam.nih.gov
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is the federal government’s lead agency for scientific research on CAM therapies. A search of the site for back pain and massage yields a “Backgrounder” on massage therapy as CAM. While this is more of an overview of massage, there are helpful article references at the end of the page.

MEDLINEPLUS

www.medlineplus.gov
MedlinePlus directs you to information to help answer health questions. It combines the authoritative information from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as other government agencies and health-related organizations.

It is consumer oriented so may not provide evidence-based resources; however, it is an excellent source for background information, and to educate yourself about your clients’ health conditions or diseases.

For example, a search for back pain on the website produced a number of results, including a page of links to various aspects of back pain. You can view them all by visiting www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/backpain.html. It also includes sections on overviews, latest news, diagnosis/symptoms, treatment, prevention/screening and more.

National Guideline Clearinghouse

www.guideline.gov
The National Guideline Clearinghouse is a resource that brings together evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in one convenient location. You can search the full text of available guidelines. For the case at hand, type “massage and back pain” in the search box. A number of results are presented, including a guideline entitled, “Low back: lumbar & thoracic (acute and chronic).” Within this document, massage is listed as an intervention for back pain.

Fee-Based Services

Other databases are available for a fee. However, your public or medical library may allow you to search these databases for free (see sidebar, page 100). Some options of these are:

Practice Makes Perfect

Many of the resources outlined in this article may be new to you, but using them regularly will increase your ability to find what you need. If you need assistance in a particularly complex or difficult search, ask a librarian at your local public or university library or an affiliated health care organization library.

In the client case outlined in this article, the evidence showed that massage has proven benefits for those suffering chronic back pain. Using these resources can get you the evidence you need to make informed decisions about the practice you provide to your clients.

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