A new research says that people that are being treated for lower back pain via acupuncture are likely to benefit from the treatment if they are positive that the method will work than those who do not expect the method to be effective.
According to the study published in The Journal of Clinical Pain, people who are more in control of their symptoms and feel positive in recovering from back pain will more likely to experience less back-related disability while having acupuncture.
Researchers from the University of Southamptom in the United Kingdom have studied 485 people who were planning to undergo acupuncture. According to WebMD, the researchers floated questionnaires before the treatment and then after 2 weeks, 3 months and 6 months.
They collated the data and information of psychological factors, their background and the impact on back pain on their daily activities.
"The analysis showed that psychological factors were consistently associated with back-related disability. People who started out with very low expectations of acupuncture - who thought it probably would not help them - were more likely to report less benefit as treatment went on," says study author Dr. Felicity Bishop as reported by Medical News Today.
Her work is funded by Arthritis Research United Kingdom. She added, "When individual patients came to see their back pain more positively, they went on to experience less back-related disability. In particular, they experienced less disability over the course of treatment when they came to see their back pain as more controllable, when they felt they had better understanding of their back pain, when they felt better able to cope with it, were less emotional about it, and when they felt their back pain was going to have less of an impact on their lives."
The authors of the study admit that it is hard to assess how representative the sample of patients in the study is. However, they are glad to show a big picture regarding how the attitude and outlook of patients affect acupuncture outcomes.
According to Dr. Stephen Simpson, director of research at Arthritis Research UK, the study reiterates and enlightens us on how the placebo effect may affect the feeling of pain. "The process whereby the brain's processing of different emotions in relation to their treatment can influence outcome is a really important area for research."
"Factors such as the relationship between practitioner and the patient can inform this and we should be able to understand the biological pathways by which this happens. This understanding could lead in the future to better targeting of acupuncture and related therapies in order to maximize patient benefit," he added.
