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Once considered “alternative” in American healthcare, integrative medicine is now a widely respected, evidence-based option for pain management, and The Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt is leading the way. Founded in 2007, the Nashville clinic is one of six Osher Centers worldwide dedicated to healing the mind, body and spirit.

The center blends traditional medicine with proven, mind and body research-based therapies including yoga, meditation, acupuncture and massage.

Research Director David Vago, PhD, said the holistic, interprofessional team helps patients adopt a somewhat non-traditional attitude toward chronic pain. “The crucial aspect of pain is that no one wants to experience it so we typically turn away from it and want it to go away now,” Vago said. 

“One thing The Osher Center does in general is to help change the relationship to pain so that it’s not something we want to avoid or get rid of … but rather approach and accept. That’s a huge part of our model.”

Part of that conversation is challenging patients to rethink the traditional definition of “health,” often viewed as lack of disease. “That’s not our only definition,” said Linda Manning, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and interim director of The Osher Center. “If we could make all pain go away, we would be delighted; but the reality is chronic pain by definition lasts more than three months, often times after an original injury has healed. It’s about the brain telling the body it’s in pain so we work with relationships that help us improve quality of life and function optimally.”

Article Topics:

• Rethinking Pain
• Treatment after Opioids
• Better Tools for Pain Management
• “Alternative” as the New “Normal”

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