Chronic Low Back Pain and Primary Health Care

CAM Referral and Outcomes: Chronic Low Back Pain in Urban and Rural Primary Care

Kentucky ranks 2nd in disability among states, with chronic low back pain (CLBP) as a major disability, especially in the investigators rural areas. Kentucky and U.S. health care providers need alternative and effective treatments. Following NCCAM strategic research recommendations, this study will investigate health services outcomes of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies in an existing primary care practice-based research network (PBRN). The Patients with CLBP are often willing to try therapeutic options outside the conventional medical spectrum. Massage and relaxation therapies have demonstrated fairly good efficacy in controlled trials but their effectiveness in the "real world" of primary care is only beginning to be evaluated. The long-term goal of the proposed project builds on the foundation of these two established therapies to improve treatment of chronic low back pain (CLBP) in primary care practices. Two alternative (CAM) therapies, progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) and clinical massage therapy (CMT), will be studied. The short-term objectives of the proposed project are to: (1) examine outcomes of CAM for patients with CLBP referred from primary care practices, and (2) better understand physician decision-making to recommend CAM therapy for CLBP. Specific Aim 1 will evaluate improvement in health-related outcomes for patients with CLBP when referred to PMR or CMT from primary care. Specific Aim 2 will explore selected factors in primary care physicians' decisions to recommend CAM therapy to these patients. The proposed study is unique in that it addresses "real life" clinical situations and decision-making in both urban and rural clinical practices within an existing PBRN. Should such CAM referral prove successful for ameliorating CLBP, it would provide relatively low cost, non-addictive treatment options for inclusion in the repertoire of primary care physicians.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Low Back Pain
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR); Procedure: Clinical Massage Therapy (CMT)

Detailed Description

The proposed study will investigate health related outcomes of two CAM treatments recommended by primary care physicians for CLBP, and explore selected elements in the decision process to recommend or not recommend one of two CAM treatments.

Patients and primary care physicians (PCPs) will participate from metropolitan and nonmetropolitan central Kentucky practices of the Kentucky Ambulatory Network (KAN), Kentucky's statewide primary care practice-based research network (PBRN). Each practice will have a patient participant enrollment period of four weeks. Patients with CLBP who have a visit during the enrollment period in a practice may be eligible to participate in the study, and participating PCPs will be invited to recommend as many eligible patients as they feel comfortable. During patient visits, the PCP may offer a recommendation to the patient to receive PMR or CMT. Patients who agree will be recruited by the KAN/CAM project team staff. Patients who enroll in the CAM recommendation study will receive a 12-week course of PMR or CMT treatments. Outcomes will be measured at three time points: baseline, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 138
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Kentucky
    • Lexington, Kentucky, United States, 40536
      • Department of Family and Community Medicine; University of Kentucky

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 21 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Have a visit with the physician during the 4-week study referral period for that practice
• Be 21 years of age or older on the date of the visit
• According to the physician, currently have CLBP
• Have been a patient in the practice for at least 3 months
• Have a life expectancy of 6 months or more

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not have a current or past history of psychosis
• Not be pregnant

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Progressive Muscle Relaxation	Behavioral: Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR); Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) will be recorded on PDAs integrated with EMA software and offered to patients who will be instructed in the techniques and PDA use by study coordinators. They will be instructed to practice 25 minutes/day the first two weeks, 35 minutes/day weeks 3 and 4, and 45 minutes/day weeks 5 through 12. These time periods (25/35/45 minute) were selected to allow a more gradual acclimation to PMR.
Active Comparator: Clinical Massage Therapy	Procedure: Clinical Massage Therapy (CMT); PCPs will have the opportunity to refer patients with CLBP to local Licensed Massage Therapists (LMTs) to receive up to 10 clinical massage sessions over a 12-week period. CMT will be provided at no cost to the patients. At their first two sessions, the LMT will evaluate the patient and, with the patient, estimate the number of sessions and determine treatment goals. Based on previous literature, 10 sessions are anticipated over an average 12-week period. However, treatment will vary depending on assessment and progress. At the end of the treatment period, the patients will receive a list of all participating LMTs to facilitate patients' continued or future participation in massage therapy.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Oswestry Disability Index (ODI)	Survey completed at Baseline, 12 Weeks, and 24 Weeks	Baseline, 12 Weeks, and 24 Weeks
Short Form 36 (SF-36)	Health related quality of life survey	Baseline, 12 Weeks, and 24 Weeks
Faces Pain Scale - Revised (FPS-R)	Survey	Baseline, 12 Weeks, and 24 Weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Pain Medication Questionnaire (PMQ) - subset	Survey	Baseline, 12 Weeks, and 24 Weeks
Expectations for and Satisfaction with Therapies	Survey	Baseline and 12 Weeks
Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK) - Subset	Survey	Baseline, 12 Weeks, and 24 Weeks
Patient Perceptions of CAM Therapy	Survey	Baseline, 12 Weeks, and 24 Weeks
Physician Perceptions of CAM Therapy	Survey	Baseline
Physician Point-of-Care Card	CLBP visit description and reasons to recommend patients for this therapy study.	4 weeks per practice (Identify and screen for possible patients)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: William G Elder JR
• Collaborators: National Institutes of Health (NIH); National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: William G Elder, PhD, University of Kentucky

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: September 1, 2009
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 1, 2013
• Study Completion (Actual): July 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 30, 2010
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 16, 2010
• First Posted (Estimate): June 22, 2010

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): June 4, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 3, 2014
• Last Verified: June 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Back Pain; Low Back Pain
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1R21AT004544-01A2 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)