Professional kinesiology practice for chronic low back pain: single-blind, randomised controlled pilot study.

Area of Science:

• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Musculoskeletal Health
• Pain Management

Background:

• Chronic low back pain is a prevalent condition lacking definitive treatments.
• Professional Kinesiology Practice (PKP) is an under-researched complementary therapy utilizing non-standard muscle testing.
• No prior studies have evaluated the effectiveness of PKP.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a pilot study assessing the effectiveness of PKP for chronic low back pain.
• To compare real PKP against sham PKP and a waiting list control (WLC).

Main Methods:

• An exploratory, pragmatic, single-blind, 3-arm randomized sham-controlled pilot study.
• 70 participants with chronic low back pain (RMDQ score ≥4) were randomized to real PKP, sham PKP, or WLC.
• Treatments involved 1 session weekly for 5 weeks; WLC participants were later re-randomized.

Main Results:

• Real PKP demonstrated a moderate specific effect compared to sham (mean RMDQ difference -2.9, p=0.04).
• Both real and sham PKP showed significant improvements in RMDQ scores compared to WLC (effect sizes 2.1 and 1.4, respectively).
• Holistic health beliefs (CAMBI) predicted outcomes, while practitioner empathy (CARE) and patient enablement (PEI) did not.

Conclusions:

• PKP exhibits a moderate specific treatment effect for chronic low back pain.
• Substantial non-specific and contextual effects were observed for both real and sham PKP.
• Further definitive research, including qualitative components, is warranted to elucidate PKP's mechanisms.