TY  - JOUR
AU  - Alsabri, Mohammed
AU  - Viswanathan, Kusum
AU  - Castillo, Fiorella
AU  - Ghai, Paridhi
AU  - Hemmat Hamrah, Maryam
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/04/15
TI  - Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Children with Sickle Cell Disease: Prevalence and Factors Associated with Use
JO  - OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
SP  - 013
VL  - 06
IS  - 02
AB  - Background and Aim: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is one of the most common hematological disorders in the world. In the United States, it is the single most common genetic hematological disorder. The burden of SCD and its complications on pediatric patients is tremendous, especially in acute and chronic pain. Although allopathic medicine has provided numerous pain medications to treat this, they do not come without side-effects and are not always effective. This review explores complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) methods of pain management available for pediatric SCD patients. 
Experimental Procedure: A PubMed and Google Scholar literature search was conducted, and the reference lists of shortlisted studies and review articles were screened to select a total of 18 studies as they directly explored the topic. 
Results and Conclusion: A wide range of CAM therapies exist. Common ones include praying, spirituality, and massage. Factors associated with CAM use are parental use of CAM, sex, SCD/pain severity, patient’s age, caregiver’s education level, and in some cases, financial means to access CAM methods. CAM has shown to be effective in reducing pain, patient’s depression and anxiety, analgesic use, and in increasing daily functioning. Thus, CAM has demonstrated potential in reducing pain and improving quality of life of pediatric SCD patients. It holds great promise to be regularly encouraged by providers and employed by patients. Further research is needed on a larger scale to better study its efficacy; however, CAM use has repeatedly been associated with improved functioning and pain control.
SN  - 2573-4393
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.icm.2102013
DO  - 10.21926/obm.icm.2102013
ID  - Alsabri2021
ER  -