Are Pain Management Clinics Violating Deceptive Marketing Laws?

The deceptive marketing lawyers at The Lyon Firm are investigating false advertising and potential fraud at alternative medicine clinics. Many chiropractors and pain management clinics offer unproven treatments involving prolotherapy, stem cells and PRP therapy, and may be exaggerating the benefits in their marketing material. Contact our consumer protection attorneys to discuss what may constitute misleading claims and deceptive marketing.

Understanding the Legality of Alternative Medicine Marketing

Experimental medicine and alternative treatments are a multi-billion dollar industry, and many chiropractors and pain management clinics offer a wide range of treatments and therapies that are either unproven or without FDA approval, or both. This doesn’t necessarily make the offered treatment regimens a waste of money; however, the doctors and therapists that sell alternative treatments have a duty to carefully prepare their clients for reasonable expectations.

Patients and consumers are often reticent to have any unnecessary surgery or to begin taking strong painkilling pharmaceuticals, which is understandable. Individuals are free to choose any treatment they think would suit them best, but some deceptive marketing and false advertising schemes that offer prolotherapy, stem cells, Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) and other experimental treatments may be misleading.

Our legal team is actively investigating chiropractors, stem cell clinics, and pain management centers that sell prolotherapy and PRP therapies to consumers with misleading claims and exaggerated benefits. Consumers who believe a clinic made outrageous promises about potential results and benefits of alternative therapy can contact an attorney to review a possible legal claim. Compensation may be available for large amount of money spent on therapies that did not provide any health benefits, and filing a class action lawsuit can be considered.

Are Pain Clinics Promising Unrealistic Natural Treatment Benefits?

Some chiropractic practices and pain management clinics have been accused of false advertising and deceptive marketing tactics related to costly alternative therapies like PRP, stem cell treatment, prolotherapy and other tissue rejuvenation procedures. The health risks of such procedures are generally quite low, but the financial risks may be vastly downplayed.

In many instances, patients are lured into pain clinics with new hope and unwarranted promises of natural results. Consumers, motivated by these often exaggerated results, are then suddenly overburdened by a series of expensive treatments that may or may not show promise. Many consumer protection groups and attorneys have filed complaints against chiropractors and pain clinics that have violated deceptive marketing statutes.

Put simply, if any marketing material, doctor, or clinic staff make potential health claims that are not backed by scientific evidence, plaintiffs can consider taking legal action.

Is Prolotherapy Proven and Effective?

It has been several decades since physicians started administering prolotherapy as a potential treatment for pain and tissue rejuvenation. But in all that time, there have not been enough definitive studies on the benefits of prolotherapy to pass FDA approval. The alternative regenerative treatment involves the injection of a saline or dextrose solution to stimulate tissue repair. It is not FDA-approved for any specific medical condition.

The concept of “regenerative medicine” encompasses several therapies, like prolotherapy, platelet-rich plasma therapy (PRP), and stem cell therapy. Prolotherapy is also known as proliferation therapy or regenerative injection therapy. The technique is meant to stimulate growth factor production to treat injured connective tissues.

Clinics that sell this therapy and other alternative treatments are quick to point to industry studies conducted on patients that show promising results. But for every hopeful clinical study published about the effectiveness of prolotherapy there is a less hopeful, inconclusive study in the same field. Thus, many medical professionals say this is a proper red flag and will not offer any treatment that is considered experimental.

Prolotherapy remains on the fringe of acceptable medical procedures and is generally only offered at pain management centers and homeopathic, holistic clinics that sometimes do not even have licensed medical doctors on staff.

Patients should be wary of an alternative treatment that cannot point to sufficient, high-quality clinical research that establishes its effectiveness. If you have had a chiropractor or a pain management clinic mislead you or a loved one, or sold you unproven treatments that did not work as intended, you can file a claim with the FTC about a health product scam or misleading advertising. You may also seek compensation to reimburse you for any promised or exaggerated therapy results that were based on unrealistic clinical expectations.

To be clear, some studies have found that prolotherapy does reduce real or perceieved pain in some patients. Other studies, however, point to a likely placebo effect, meaning the treatment helps people because they believe it will. Most people, in fact, have a strong placebo response to needles and injections. Prolotherapy is commonly offered to help people with arthritis, fibromyalgia, back pain, tendonitis, degenerative discs and other more serious conditions.

A 2021 review, for example, found that prolotherapy may be effective in treating chronic musculoskeletal pain, and that prolotherapy using dextrose was more effective than saline solutions or exercise.

However, other studies have found that the benefits of prolotherapy may be due to the placebo effect. Julius Oni, MD, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has said, “I would not recommend prolotherapy because I believe the jury is still out on its efficacy. Most studies in the treatment of osteoarthritis are relatively small and show some short-term benefit, with no definitive mid-term or long-term benefit.”

At The Lyon Firm, we are currently assessing the overall usefulness of some alternative medicine and trying to determine whether or not some clinics are misleading patients with unproven success rates that are often used to sell consumers on expensive treatment packages. You may have a good claim if unproven treatments are sold as a “fix,” “miracles,” “cures,” “FDA approved,” or procedures that repair and rejuvenate damaged tissue.

We also have concerns about treatments that sell fleeting pain management treatments that may help for very short periods of time, but ultimately hold patients hostage to continual therapy that masks pain and does not address any underlying condition or injury.

Because most insurance plans will not cover prolotherapy, stem cell therapy, or PRP rejuvenation treatments, consumers are almost always paying out-of-pocket for costly procedures that do not have the FDA stamp of approval. We fight for your consumer rights, and we hold companies accountable for any misleading, exaggerated, deceptive marketing and false advertising. Contact our lawyers for a free case review and consultation.