Chronic low back pain is a highly prevalent medical condition and responsible for high treatment costs. Patients with chronic low back pain often use acupuncture, which has been shown to be beneficial. This projects assesses expectations of patients and evaluates impact on the treatment outcome. The aims of the project include to develop an instrument to measure patients' expectations, to implement this instrument and to test the effect of patients' expectations on the treatment outcome.

Principle investigator:
Witt, MD, MBA

Project coordinator:
Barth, PhD

Research associate:
Brinkhaus, MD (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin)
Rosemann, MD, PhD (Primary Care, University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Kern, MSc
Zieger
Zoller, MD

Biometry:
Held, PhD (Department of Biostatistics, University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Seifert, PhD (Department of Biostatistics, University of Zurich, Switzerland)

Project duration:
2014-2018

Project status:
main phase

Funding:
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)