Clinical Trials

There are many clinical trials sponsored both by industry and the National Institutes of Health. Clinical trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health related to back pain can be viewed at NIH Clinical Back Pain Trials.

Pain is subjective and is impossible to test objectively. There are no clinical tests that can be objectively verified. Clinical tests are limited to be measured by the patient s perception of how he scores the pain on a scale of 1 to 10. Sometimes and particularly with children a series of emoticons are presented to the patient and the subject is asked to point to an emoticon. Even though some clinical trials succeed in getting regulatory approval for products this is not a proof that this therapy is more effective or even has a benefit. All the test rely on the patients perception. The doctor can not verify whether 5 is a more appropriate score than 1 or 10.

A 2008 randomized controlled trial found marked improvement in addressing back pain with The Alexander Technique. Exercise and a combination of 6 lessons of AT reduced back pain 72% as much as 24 AT lessons. Those receiving 24 lessons had 18 fewer days of back pain than the control median of 21 days.