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Written by Mita Majumdar
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Monday, 28 July 2008
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Lower back pain is a major cause of disability, work absenteeism, and medical costs in the US. Lower back pain affects most people at some point in their lives; and although fifty percent of episodes subside within four weeks, fifteen to twenty percent of sufferers experience pain even after one year. The failure of conventional treatments to manage the problem effectively has led to the investigation of integrative, complementary and alternative medicine (ICAM) treatments. Reflexology is one such treatment which has been found to be quite effective in managing non-specific low back pain.
A randomized, double blind, clinical trial was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of reflexology in the management of lower back pain. Fifteen participants suffering from non-specific lower back pain were recruited and randomized into either a reflexology or a sham group. Each patient received either a forty minute reflexology treatment or a forty minute sham treatment once a week for six consecutive weeks.
The results indicated that the participants who received the sham treatment displayed a minimal change in pain, whereas, those participants who received a full reflexology treatment showed significant reduction in pain in the lower back. These results suggest that reflexology may be useful in the treatment of lower back pain, and may also have some wider benefits in terms of quality of life. However, the researchers felt that more trials were required before definitive pronouncements are possible.
References
1. F. Quinn, C.M. Hughes, and G.D. Baxter: Reflexology in the management of low back pain: A pilot randomised controlled trial. Complementary Therapies in Medicine Volume 16, Issue 1, February 2008, pp. 3-8.
2. http://www.sciencedirect.com/
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