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The Effects of Anthroposophic Medicine in Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: The currently available evidence is unclear in regard to pain-related outcomes of patients with chronic pain conditions who undergo treatment with anthroposophic medicine (AM). AIM: To identify and synthesize the evidence in patients with chronic pain before and after AM therapy. METHODS...

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Autores principales: Ploesser, Markus, Martin, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10663697/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37358805
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/jicm.2022.0723
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author Ploesser, Markus
Martin, David
author_facet Ploesser, Markus
Martin, David
author_sort Ploesser, Markus
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The currently available evidence is unclear in regard to pain-related outcomes of patients with chronic pain conditions who undergo treatment with anthroposophic medicine (AM). AIM: To identify and synthesize the evidence in patients with chronic pain before and after AM therapy. METHODS: The following databases and search interfaces were searched on October 21, 2021: Embase (via Embase.com), Medline (via PubMed), and the Cochrane Library. Additional references were identified via bibliographies of included studies. In at least one experimental arm that used anthroposophic therapy to treat chronic pain, AM treatments were required to be documented. Included studies reported on pain severity and physical and emotional functioning. Two authors independently assessed the studies for inclusion criteria, extracted the data, and conducted the quality evaluation of the included studies based on the critical appraisal tools provided by the Joanna Briggs Institute. RESULTS: Seven studies (eight publications) were included in the review, of which were three randomized controlled trials (RCTs), two non-RCTs, and two pretest–post-test studies. A total number of 600 patients participated in the identified experimental studies, of whom all were adults. Three studies included patients with low back pain, one study each assessed patients with fibromyalgia, migraine, dysmenorrhea, and postpolio syndrome, respectively. The identified clinical studies reported considerable reductions in symptoms and effect sizes of pain outcomes after AM therapies being predominantly large, with no notable adverse effects. CONCLUSION: The findings of this systematic review of studies assessing AM therapies in patients with chronic pain problems revealed that there is a scarcity of evidence currently available, with unclear effects of AM treatments in reducing pain intensity and improving quality of life in the evaluated health conditions. Although most of the studies revealed a favorable benefit on one or more pain-related outcomes, the variability of the research did not allow for generalization across different studies, health conditions, and populations.
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spelling pubmed-106636972023-11-09 The Effects of Anthroposophic Medicine in Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review Ploesser, Markus Martin, David J Integr Complement Med Review Articles BACKGROUND: The currently available evidence is unclear in regard to pain-related outcomes of patients with chronic pain conditions who undergo treatment with anthroposophic medicine (AM). AIM: To identify and synthesize the evidence in patients with chronic pain before and after AM therapy. METHODS: The following databases and search interfaces were searched on October 21, 2021: Embase (via Embase.com), Medline (via PubMed), and the Cochrane Library. Additional references were identified via bibliographies of included studies. In at least one experimental arm that used anthroposophic therapy to treat chronic pain, AM treatments were required to be documented. Included studies reported on pain severity and physical and emotional functioning. Two authors independently assessed the studies for inclusion criteria, extracted the data, and conducted the quality evaluation of the included studies based on the critical appraisal tools provided by the Joanna Briggs Institute. RESULTS: Seven studies (eight publications) were included in the review, of which were three randomized controlled trials (RCTs), two non-RCTs, and two pretest–post-test studies. A total number of 600 patients participated in the identified experimental studies, of whom all were adults. Three studies included patients with low back pain, one study each assessed patients with fibromyalgia, migraine, dysmenorrhea, and postpolio syndrome, respectively. The identified clinical studies reported considerable reductions in symptoms and effect sizes of pain outcomes after AM therapies being predominantly large, with no notable adverse effects. CONCLUSION: The findings of this systematic review of studies assessing AM therapies in patients with chronic pain problems revealed that there is a scarcity of evidence currently available, with unclear effects of AM treatments in reducing pain intensity and improving quality of life in the evaluated health conditions. Although most of the studies revealed a favorable benefit on one or more pain-related outcomes, the variability of the research did not allow for generalization across different studies, health conditions, and populations. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2023-11-01 2023-11-09 /pmc/articles/PMC10663697/ /pubmed/37358805 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/jicm.2022.0723 Text en © Markus Ploesser and David Martin 2023; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License [CC-BY] (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Articles
Ploesser, Markus
Martin, David
The Effects of Anthroposophic Medicine in Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review
title The Effects of Anthroposophic Medicine in Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review
title_full The Effects of Anthroposophic Medicine in Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review
title_fullStr The Effects of Anthroposophic Medicine in Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review
title_full_unstemmed The Effects of Anthroposophic Medicine in Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review
title_short The Effects of Anthroposophic Medicine in Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review
title_sort effects of anthroposophic medicine in chronic pain conditions: a systematic review
topic Review Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10663697/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37358805
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/jicm.2022.0723
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