A
study of the relationship between stress and chronic pain. Can this be
statistically evaluated and is there a role for Osteopathy in treating such
a combined condition?
David Langdon
Supervisor: Simon Chafer
Abstract
Objectives:
It is
hypothesised that there is a link between chronic pain and stress and that
osteopathic treatment can reduce these factors. This study was designed to
see if there is a relationship between chronic pain and stress that can be
statistically correlated and whether the treatment of chronic pain using
variable osteopathic techniques can, indirectly, lead to a reduction in
stress and therefore pain levels.
Methods:
This was a three part,
questionnaire based study analysing:
1.
Any statistical correlation
between chronic pain and stress.
2.
To assess whether
osteopathic treatment for chronic pain causes a reduction in stress levels.
3.
The effect of
different treatments on patient stress levels.
Results:
Questionnaire
1:
50% of
individuals showed a statistically significant relationship between their
emotional stress/pain levels. 61.11% of individuals showed a correlation
between their physical stress/pain levels. 61.11% showed significant
correlation between the totals for stress/pain level. Finally 66.66% had
some form of correlation between their stress/pain levels. 33.33% showed no
correlation.
Questionnaire
2 (part 1):
Results
showed a statistically significant reduction in all the individual questions
within the 95% confidence intervals, except for question 2 which just
failed.
Questionnaire
2 (part 2):
Insufficient
data was available to analyse this questionnaire.
Conclusion: