TY - JOUR T1 - C’mon, CAM JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 544 LP - 546 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.121109 VL - 40 IS - 5 AU - RICHARD S. PANUSH Y1 - 2013/05/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/40/5/544.abstract N2 - “All who drink of this remedy are cured, except those who die. Thus, it is effective for all but the incurable.” — Galen “I didn’t say it was good for you,” the king replied. “I said there was nothing like it.” — Lewis Carroll, Through The Looking Glass “What I tell you three times is true.” — Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the SnarkI’m a fan of Monday night football. A feature introduced in the past year or so has been “c’mon, man,” showing dramatically bad plays. Increasingly I’ve come to think about so-called “complementary and alternative medicine,” (CAM) this way1,2,3,4. It would make my “c’mon, man” list if I were compiling medicine’s (or perhaps more correctly, society’s) “do-overs.” Why? And is there really nothing currently that might be of interest?Let’s briefly examine certain recent literature about CAM and rheumatic disease, after which I will expand on my comments and elaborate. Briefly, type II collagen therapy has not emerged as clinically useful, despite a rationale to examine this5. Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F (the thunder god vine) appeared promising for rheumatic disease and was studied; while there was clinical benefit, side effects and costs precluded development for widespread use6,7,8. Intraarticular botulinum toxin was suggested for refractory pain following knee arthroplasty9, and has been reported for tendonitis10. Antibiotics may indeed have a role for some patients with Chlamydia-induced reactive arthritis11. Clarithromycin helped a patient with adult-onset Still disease12. Pulsed electrical stimulation remained disappointing for knee osteoarthritis (OA)13. Low-intensity ultrasound is being studied for knee OA14. Yoga15,16, tai chi17, massage18, and manipulation19 may help some patients with OA and back and neck pain. Classic Ayurvedic medicine can be formally studied20 … Address correspondence to Dr. Panush; E-mail: panush{at}usc.edu ER -