Objectives: (1) To develop a mixed course of individual and group lessons in the Alexander Technique (AT) for low back pain, and (2) to explore its: (a) effectiveness and (b) acceptability to both participant AT teachers and patients.
Design: Single-centre study, mixed methods.
Setting: Members of the public in the Brighton area (community recruitment), and patients from six Hampshire General Practices (GP) (National Health Service (NHS) recruitment).
Participants: People with chronic or recurrent low back pain; AT teachers.
Interventions: Iterative development and implementation of a 10-lesson (6 group, 4 individual) AT course.
Outcome measures: Perceptions from semistructured interviews analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Descriptive analysis of RMDQ (Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire) over 12 weeks.
Results: Thirty-nine participants with low back pain were included and 32 AT teachers were interviewed, 7 of whom taught on the course. Some participants had reservations, preferring only individual lessons, but the majority found the sharing of experience and learning in groups helpful. There was also concern regarding group teaching among some AT teachers, but most also found it acceptable. By 12 weeks, RMDQ score among participants fell from 10.38 to 4.39, a change of -5.99. 29 of 39 (74%) participants had a clinically important reduction in RMDQ score of 2.5 or more.
Conclusion: Some patients and practitioners had reservations about group AT lessons, but most found groups helpful. Further development is needed, but the course of individual and group lessons has the potential to cost-effectively deliver clinically important benefits to patients with back pain, who are known to improve little and slowly.
Keywords: back pain; complementary medicine; primary care; rheumatology.
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