ABMP Commits To Help Raise Massage Therapy Status As Low-Back Pain Treatment

Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals
(ABMP) has pledged $15,000 to help gain medical recognition of massage
therapy as a treatment for low-back pain, which afflicts millions of
Americans.


ABMP is pleased to make a lead grant to the initiative and the funds
pledged represent one fourth of those needed to advance a review under the
auspices of the National Institutes for Health, Office of Medical
Applications of Research. Called a "consensus conference," the effort
involves testimony and a research review by an independent panel.


"The evidence is there and the time has come," says Les Sweeney,
nationally certified massage therapist and ABMP president. "We moved swiftly
to support this initiative because massage therapists are long overdue in
receiving medical recognition for the work they do to relieve suffering from
back pain."


An August 2005 issue of Consumer Reports cited deep-tissue massage
as one of the remedies voted most effective by readers for back pain. Other
research shows consumer massage use is as frequent as insurance-paid
chiropractic and physical therapy care, yet more than 90 percent of massage
therapy is client-paid.


"Massage therapists have long treated low-back pain safely and
effectively," Sweeney says. "They have done so less expensively and less
invasively than is possible with other treatments. A favorable finding by
the panel could reduce pain and financial hardship for Americans who now
pick up the tab for massage therapy or go without care."


The last consensus conference addressing back pain was more than a
decade ago and led to insurance coverage for spinal manipulation in treating
back pain. At the same time, the body of research supporting massage therapy
was deemed insufficient to gain similar recognition.


Massage therapy research expert Janet R. Kahn, PhD, believes
sufficient research has been conducted since that time to warrant a
favorable finding for massage and for some of the other complementary and
alternative therapies that could be included in the same consensus
conference process. Kahn is the executive director of the Vermont-based
Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC), a coalition of some 30
health care professional organizations that will coordinate the request
process on behalf of the professions.


Under NIH standards, it takes a "strong body of higher quality
evidence - randomized trials and well-designed observational studies" to
convene a consensus conference, which includes presentations by
investigators, a public comment-and-question session and private
deliberations. The process can take two years once NIH-OMAR agrees to a
review. Historically, panel findings are the impetus for Medicare and
Medicaid reimbursement policies, with many payors following suit.


ABMP serves the massage and bodywork professions and is devoted to
promoting ethical practices, fostering acceptance of the professions and
protecting the rights of massage and bodywork practitioners. Since its
inception in 1987, ABMP has been an advocate for recognition of the health
benefits of massage therapy and its cost-effectiveness as a form of
complementary medicine. Headquartered in Evergreen, Colo., ABMP is employee
owned and is the largest massage therapy membership association in the
nation.

abmp