Yoga is noninferior to physical therapy in reducing chronic back pain, according to the results of a new study.
The results were presented at the American Academy of Pain Management’s 27th Annual Meeting.
Previous research has suggested that yoga is effective in reducing back pain; however, the comparative effectiveness of yoga and physical therapy (PE) is less well understood.
To conduct their study, the researchers recruited 320 adults aged 18 to 64 years with chronic back pain and no anatomic cause who were being treated at community health centers in Boston, Massachusetts.
The participants ranked pain and function on a scale ranging from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest) and were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: yoga, physical therapy, or education.
For 12 weeks, the yoga group participated in weekly 75-minute sessions based on current literature on yoga therapy, and the physical therapy group engaged in 15 one-on-one 60-minute sessions that included aerobic exercise. The education group was given a comprehensive book on back pain.
The participants were then assigned a maintenance regimen and followed for an additional year.
After 12 weeks, function and pain scores were similar among patients in the yoga and physical therapy groups.
At baseline, about 70% of all participants were taking medication. However, after 12 weeks, medication use among participants in the yoga and physical therapy groups was reduced by 20% but had not changed in the education group.
The researchers also plan to study the cost-effectiveness of yoga vs physical therapy from the perspectives of the payer, society, and the patient.
—Amanda Balbi
Reference:
Saper RB. Can yoga help back pain as much as physical therapy? Paper presented at: the American Academy of Pain Management (AAPM) 27th Annual Meeting; September 21-25, 2016; San Antonio, Texas. https://meeting.aapainmanage.org/meeting-sessions/can-yoga-help-back-pain-as-much-as-physical-therapy/. Accessed September 30, 2016.