CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 407Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitationPain Management and Placebo EffectAcupuncture Treatment Research Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record, with a small difference in title or year; 35 of the 35 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Lessons from a Trial of Acupuncture and Massage for Low Back Pain: Patient Expectations and Treatment Effects

Kalauokalani, Donna, Cherkin, Daniel C., Sherman, Karen J., Koepsell, Thomas D., Deyo, Richard A.·2001·Spine
DOI 10.1097/00007632-200107010-00005
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

STUDY DESIGN: A subanalysis of data derived from a randomized clinical trial was performed. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association of a patient's expectation for benefit from a specific treatment with improved functional outcome. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Psychosocial factors, ambiguous diagnoses, and lack of a clearly superior treatment have complicated the management of patients with chronic low back pain. The authors hypothesized that patient expectation for benefit from a specific treatment is associated with improved functional outcomes when that treatment is administered. METHODS: In a randomized trial, 135 patients with chronic low back pain who received acupuncture or massage were studied. Before randomization, study participants were asked to describe their expectations regarding the helpfulness of each treatment on a scale of 0 to 10. The primary outcome was level of function at 10 weeks as measured by the modified Roland Disability scale. RESULTS: After adjustment for baseline characteristics, improved function was observed for 86% of the participants with higher expectations for the treatment they received, as compared with 68% of those with lower expectations (P = 0.01). Furthermore, patients who expected greater benefit from massage than from acupuncture were more likely to experience better outcomes with massage than with acupuncture, and vice versa (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that patient expectations may influence clinical outcome independently of the treatment itself. In contrast, general optimism about treatment, divorced from a specific treatment, is not strongly associated with outcome. These results may have important implications for clinical trial design and recruitment, and may help to explain the apparent success of some conventional and alternative therapies in trials that do not control for patient expectations. The findings also may be important for therapy choices made in the clinical setting.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1097/00007632-200107010-00005

Cites

35 of 35 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Woolley, 1978, Soc Sci Med, 12, 123

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 407

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Kalauokalani, D., Cherkin, D. C., Sherman, K. J., Koepsell, T. D., & Deyo, R. A.
Affiliations
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
  • Group Health Cooperative (US)
  • University of Washington (US)
Corresponding author
Kalauokalani, Donna
ORCID
Venue
Spine
Publisher
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Published
2001-07
Volume
26
Issue
13
Pages
1418-1424
ISSN
0362-2436 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1097/00007632-200107010-00005
OpenAlex
W2070426225
Cited by
407
References
35
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 20
FWCI
10.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Spine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (HS 09351)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Acupuncture Treatment Research Studies
Keywords
chronic low back pain, acupuncture, massage, patient expectations, treatment expectations, functional outcome, placebo effect, psychosocial factors, clinical trial design, trial recruitment
MeSH terms
Adult, Aged, Female, Humans, Male, Massage, Middle Aged, Acupuncture Therapy, Treatment Outcome, Patient Satisfaction, Low Back Pain

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review