Alternative therapy for back pain smacks of desperation

Guidelines published yesterday tell GPs they should now offer acupuncture to patients suffering from chronic back pain.

This is the first time an alternative therapy has been backed in this way and, to me, it smacks of desperation.

The guidance says anyone whose pain persists for more than six weeks should be given a choice of treatments because no one treatment has been proved to cure back problems.

Roughly translated this means: "We have no idea what to do so we might as well try every treatment in the hope that one works."

And this advice comes from the drugs and therapies watchdog, NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence). Makes you think.

There is no scientific evidence to support the efficacy of so-called alternative remedies and I think this is why NICE refers to acupuncture as a "complementary" treatment, ie, one supposed to be used alongside conventional medicine. If that doesn't sound like an admission of their uselessness I don't know what is.

If I appear closed to other ways of treating illness then forgive me. I am not.

What I am utterly opposed to is the dressing-up of unsubstantiated mumbo-jumbo as science, together with an all too selective reading of the word "evidence".

The truth is that back pain is notoriously difficult to treat and rarely has an easily identifiable cause.

It is high on the list of complaints that GPs dread hearing, such as "I'm tired all the time, doctor" or "I don't feel right in myself".

For many GPs, the NICE guidance will be manna from heaven - finally something to help get the patients out of the consulting room on time while feeling like we have actually been helpful. Doctor happy, patient happy.