Variation in diagnosis and treatment of chronic low back pain by traditional Chinese medicine acupuncturists
One article on PainSci cites Hogeboom 2001: Is Diagnosis for Pain Problems Reliable?
PainSci notes on Hogeboom 2001:
Diagnosis by acupuncturists may be unreliable. In this study, “six TCM acupuncturists evaluated the same six patients on the same day” and found that “consistency across acupuncturists regarding diagnostic details and other acupoints was poor.” The study concludes: “TCM diagnoses and treatment recommendations for specific patients with chronic low back pain vary widely across practitioners.”
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
OBJECTIVES: To assess interrater reliability of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) diagnosis and treatment of chronic low back pain.
DESIGN: Under a Latin square design, six TCM acupuncturists evaluated the same six patients on the same day.
SETTING: Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Seattle, Washington.
INTERVENTIONS: Assessment only.
OUTCOME MEASURES: TCM diagnosis, acupoint prescriptions, auxiliary treatment recommendations.
RESULTS: Twenty diagnoses and 65 acupoints were used at least once. The diagnosis of Qi/Blood Stagnation with Kidney Deficiency and the acupoint UB23 were used for every patient by most acupuncturists. However, consistency across acupuncturists regarding diagnostic details and other acupoints was poor. No diagnoses, and only one acupoint, were used preferentially for a subgroup of patients. Some diagnoses and treatment recommendations were dependent more on the practitioner than on the patient. Fine-grained diagnoses and most acupoints were unrelated to either patient or practitioner.
CONCLUSIONS: TCM diagnoses and treatment recommendations for specific patients with chronic low back pain vary widely across practitioners. Acupuncture clinical trials using an individualized treatment arm may be difficult to replicate or evaluate because of low concordance among acupuncturists. Comparison of individualized treatment with a thoughtfully developed standardized approach is warranted to determine which, if either, is superior.
related content
- “Interrater reliability: the kappa statistic,” Mary L McHugh, Biochem Med (Zagreb), 2012.
- “The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data,” J R Landis and G G Koch, Biometrics, 1977.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Association of Lumbar MRI Findings with Current and Future Back Pain in a Population-based Cohort Study. Kasch 2022 Spine (Phila Pa 1976).
- A double-blinded randomised controlled study of the value of sequential intravenous and oral magnesium therapy in patients with chronic low back pain with a neuropathic component. Yousef 2013 Anaesthesia.
- Is Neck Posture Subgroup in Late Adolescence a Risk Factor for Persistent Neck Pain in Young Adults? A Prospective Study. Richards 2021 Phys Ther.
- Sudden amnesia resulting in pain relief: the relationship between memory and pain. Choi 2007 Pain.
- Photobiomodulation therapy is not better than placebo in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain: a randomised placebo-controlled trial. Guimarães 2021 Pain.