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Purpose

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.

Conditions

Eligibility

Eligible Ages
Over 21 Years
Eligible Genders
All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Inclusion Criteria

  • 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

Exclusion Criteria

  • < 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

Study Design

Phase
N/A
Study Type
Interventional
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention Model
Parallel Assignment
Primary Purpose
Treatment
Masking
Single (Outcomes Assessor)

Arm Groups

ArmDescriptionAssigned Intervention
Active Comparator
Individual Acupuncture 		Participants will be treated weekly with individual acupuncture treatment sessions for 12 consecutive weeks. Quality of life assessments will be taken at intervals during treatment and post-treatment.
  • Procedure: Individual Acupuncture
    Acupuncture treatment in an individual setting.
Active Comparator
Group/Community Acupuncture 		Participants will be treated weekly with group acupuncture treatments sessions for 12 consecutive weeks. Quality of life assessments will be taken at intervals during treatment and post-treatment.
  • Procedure: Group/Community Acupuncture
    Acupuncture treatment in a group setting.

More Details

Status
Completed
Sponsor
Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Study Contact

Notice

Study information shown on this site is derived from ClinicalTrials.gov (a public registry operated by the National Institutes of Health). The listing of studies provided is not certain to be all studies for which you might be eligible. Furthermore, study eligibility requirements can be difficult to understand and may change over time, so it is wise to speak with your medical care provider and individual research study teams when making decisions related to participation.