Dragesund T.1, Kvåle A.2
1Physiotherapy Research Group/University of Bergen, Department of Global Health and Primary Care, Bergen, Norway, 2Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Bergen University College, Department of Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and Radiography, Bergen, Norway
Background: Norwegian Psychomotor Physiotherapy (NPMP) is usually applied to patients with widespread and long-lasting musculoskeletal pain and/or psychosomatic disorders, and has been an established treatment approach since the 1950's, although mostly in the Scandinavian countries. The perspective in NPMP is that physical, psychological and social strains may influence the whole body and can affect muscle tension, breathing, posture, balance, movements and flexibility. These elements are addressed when grasping the patient's history of complaints, as well as during body examination and treatment. Few studies have been investigating outcome of NPMP and no randomized clinical trials (RCT) have been systematically tried out on individuals.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of NPMP at 3 and 6 months follow-up on pain, physical function and mental health, in employees with long-lasting widespread musculoskeletal pain or pain located to the neck and shoulder region, compared to employees receiving Cognitive Patient Education in combination with active individualized physiotherapy (COPE-PT).
Methods: The study is currently ongoing, and is a pragmatic, single blinded RCT being registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (June 2015, NCT02482792). A total of 128 participants will be recruited from the Community of Bergen, Norway. The intervention will reflect usual care, and will be conducted in physiotherapy clinics by five experienced physiotherapists in each of the two treatment approaches, with follow-up at 3 and 6 months. Primary outcome measure is pain intensity assessed by the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). Secondary outcome measures include self-reported and tested function and Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSCL-25) for anxiety and depression.
To estimate and compare the treatment effect of the two specific interventions at the three time points (baseline, 3 and 6 months) we will use mixed effects models.
Results: A total of 127 have been included by October 2016, and 3 and 6 months follow-up will be completed by April, 2017. The results from the primary and secondary outcome measures will be presented at the WCPT.
Conclusion(s): Conclusions will be presented at the WCPT Conference.
Implications: The findings of the present study may give an important contribution to our knowledge of the outcome of NPMP, on patients with long-lasting widespread musculoskeletal pain and/or pain located to the neck and shoulder region.
Funding acknowledgements: The study was supported by the Norwegian Fund for Post-Graduate Training in Physiotherapy.
Topic: Musculoskeletal: upper limb
Ethics approval: The study was approved by the Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics, Western-Norway, Norway (REK WEST 2011/2264).
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
