geoffrey modest medical blogs

  A recent study compared mindfulness training and cognitive behavioral therapy in patients who had chronic low back pain and were being treated with opiates, finding improved back pain symptoms with decreased opiate doses in both cohorts at both 6 months and 12 months (see  lbp opioids mindfulness and CBT helps JAMA2025  in dropbox, or doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.3204)   Details : -- 770 patients were enrolled in this community partner-informed, partially masked, multisite, randomized controlled trial with participants from primary and specialty care clinics and community settings who were randomly assigned to mindfulness-based therapy (MBT) or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) -- participants had never had either MBT or CBT previously, had moderate-to-severe chronic low back pain (CLBP) (score of at least 3 on the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI)), functional limitations (score at least 20 on the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI)), and were treated with opiates ...

​ 1. A recent study   f ound that Tai Chi was at least as good, and sometimes better, than physical therapy (PT) for patients with painful knee osteoarthritis, OA ( see   doi:10.7326/M15-2143 ). There have been some earlier studies finding efficacy of  Tai Chi  for knee osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia, by decreasing  pain  and improving physical and psychological health. The current study compared  T ai C hi  with PT. details: --204 people with symptomatic knee OA --mean age 60, 70% women,  53% white/35% black, BMI 33, duration of knee  pain  8 years, mostly moderate radiologic OA (Kellgren-Lawrence grade 2 in 38%, 3 in 37%), 50% hypertensive, 20% diabetic, mean WOMAC  pain  score (Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index) 253 (range 0-500) --interventions (patients allowed to continue meds, including acetaminophen and NSAIDs):       ...