Acupuncture Approaches for Chronic Pain

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Chronic Pain, Osteoarthritis, Neck Pain, Back Pain

In brief

Chronic pain is a major public health problem that places many burdens on individuals, including impairment of physical and psychological functioning, lost productivity, and side effects of medications used to treat pain. There is also substantial evidence that minority populations differ both in prevalence and outcomes of chronic pain; access to care is a key component in these differences. Strong evidence now supports the use of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic pain conditions, including when provided in the primary care setting to participants from ethnically diverse, medically underserved populations. Acupuncture is slowly being integrated into pain management in many conventional health care settings, but cost and reimbursement for this service remain obstacles to offering acupuncture, especially in primary care and safety net settings. Because group acupuncture can be offered at much lower cost, demonstrating that individual and group delivery are equally effective could reduce barriers to use of this effective pain management approach. The primary aim of this study will be to evaluate whether acupuncture delivered in the group setting for participants with chronic pain is equal to acupuncture delivered in the individual setting. A secondary objective will be to use qualitative analysis to understand and describe the participants' experience of both acupuncture approaches, and to utilize this data to inform intervention delivery and dissemination, to better incorporate the participants' perspective.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT02456727

Run by

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

People needed

779

Starts

2015-05-01

Expected to finish

2018-03-01

Last updated by the study team

2020-09-18

Who can join

Age: 21 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Referred by a primary care provider from one of our participating primary care health centers
• Provider-documented diagnosis of osteoarthritis (any joint), neck pain, OR back pain
• Self-reported pain score of ≥4 for at least 3 months prior to program entry
• Able to provide consent for treatment and data collection in either English or Spanish

You may not qualify if…

• < 21 years of age
• Chronic pain not documented OR self reported pain of ≥4 for less than 3 months.
• Currently taking oral or injectable anticoagulants.
• Lack of contact information OR unavailable for duration of entire treatment period (24 weeks)
• Inability to consent to treatment and data collection.
• Active psychosis
• Active substance abuse

Where it is running

• Montefiore Medical Group — The Bronx, New York, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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