Hypotheses
(i) An 8-week motor control exercise program designed to restore control of the trunk muscles improves pain, disability and global perceived effect in participants with chronic low back pain at 2 months follow-up.
(ii) The improvements in pain, disability and global perceived effect following motor control exercise are maintained at 6 and 12 months follow-up.
(iii) At 12 month follow up recurrence is less in the motor control exercise group.
Screening
To screen for serious pathology, the physiotherapist will conduct a diagnostic triage [
33]. Participants in whom serious spinal pathology is suspected will be excluded from the trial and referred to their medical practitioner for review. Potential participants will be screened for contraindications to exercise using the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire [
34]. If a volunteer provides a positive response to items 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 or 7, the trial physiotherapist will discuss the case with the referring medical practitioner and if necessary a medical review will be undertaken to exclude any contraindication to exercise as listed in the ACSM guidelines [
34].
The clinical assessment used to ensure that the motor control approach is indicated is based on the key text [
28] and is a normal part of clinical assessment of low back pain. The assessment involves evaluation of the motor control strategy during a specific trunk muscle task – drawing in of the lower abdomen while maintaining an isometric contraction of the medial back muscles. The following criteria constitute correct performance of the task:
1. Moderate and sustained activation (> 10 seconds) of transversus abdominis
2. Moderate and sustained activation (> 10 seconds) of the lumbar multifidus muscles
3. Little or no activation of the global trunk muscles
4. No spinal or rib cage movement.
5. Normal breathing
Evaluation of task performance including satisfaction of the above criteria is dependent on the clinical skills of the physiotherapist. Patients who are unable to perform this task correctly will be considered suitable for motor control exercise.
Participants will be included if they meet all of the following inclusion criteria:
• Non-specific low back pain +/- leg pain of at least 3 months duration
• Currently seeking care for low back pain
• Aged greater than 18 and less than 80 years
• Comprehends English
• Clinical assessment indicates that the subject is suitable for motor control exercise
• Expects to continue residing in SWSAH region for study duration.
Participants will be excluded if they have any of the following:
• Suspected or confirmed serious spinal pathology (fracture, metastatic, inflammatory or infective diseases of the spine, cauda equina syndrome/widespread neurological disorder)
• Suspected or confirmed pregnancy
• Unable to speak English
• Nerve root compromise (2 of strength, reflex or sensation affected for same nerve root)
• Spinal surgery
• Scheduled for major surgery during treatment or follow-up period
• Any of the contraindications to exercise listed on page 42 of the ACSM guidelines [
34]
• Any contraindication to pulsed ultrasound or pulsed shortwave.
Specific spinal pathology or contraindication to treatment may be suspected based on the results of the screening questionnaire and the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire. If the assessor suspects the presence of any pathology or contraindication to treatment, these subjects should be further investigated and medical clearance obtained, if necessary.
Assessment and allocation
Outcome measures
Measures of outcomes will be obtained at follow-up appointments at 2, 6 and 12 months after randomisation. To maximise attendance at these follow-ups, appointments will be made by phone and then a letter will be sent confirming appointment and a reminder phone call will be made 24 hrs before the appointment. Every attempt (within ethical constraints) will be made to obtain outcome data, regardless of subject's compliance with trial protocols. Follow-up measures will be scored by an investigator who is blinded to group allocation. At 2 months, information about side effects of treatment will be collected from all participants using open-ended questioning.
Following the screening consultation, personal characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, religion, weight, height, level of education, employment status, doctor's details and contact information) and information about symptoms of low back pain will be collected (eg DASS 21 [
35]; Chronic Pain Grade Questionnaire) The following treatment efficacy variables will be measured at baseline, 2, 6 and 12 months.
1. Average pain intensity over last week (0–10 scale) [
36‐
38]
2. Patient-generated measure of disability (Patient-Specific Functional Scale) [
36‐
38]
3. Global perceived effect (Global Perceived Effect Scale) [
36‐
38]
4. Condition-specific measure of disability (Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire) [
36‐
38]
5. Recurrence at 12 months
The primary outcomes are pain, GPE and PSFS at 2 months and recurrence at 12 months.
Randomisation
Participants will be allocated to treatment group using sealed opaque envelopes. The allocation sequence will be generated by author CM. Participants will be scheduled to receive their first treatment within one week of randomisation.
Interventions
Contemporary physiotherapy practice in exercise prescription is to assess each patient and to implement the form of exercise that is most relevant to the particular clinical presentation. At present this widely accepted approach relies primarily upon the clinical expertise of the therapist. We have elected to evaluate motor control exercise delivered in this manner because this approach is regarded as contemporary best practice.
Participants in each group will receive 12 half hour treatments over an 8-week period, i.e. 2 sessions/week in the first month and 1 session/week in the second month. The treatment sessions are designed to become less frequent over time to encourage independence and continuation of exercise when therapy is complete. This is consistent with current clinical practice.
The
motor control exercise program is based on the treatment approach reported by O'Sullivan et al [
12], Richardson et al [
28], and Moseley [
39]. A brief description is provided below.
At the first session, participants will be comprehensively assessed and then will be prescribed exercises aimed at improving function of specific muscles of the low back region to be conducted in sessions 2–11. Stage 1 involves the most commonly prescribed exercise aimed at retraining multifidus (a back muscle) and transversus abdominus (a deep abdominal muscle); these exercises will be supplemented with exercises for the pelvic floor muscles, breathing control and control of spinal posture. Participants will be taught how to contract these muscles independently from the superficial trunk muscles [
28,
40]. Physiotherapists will use real-time ultrasound biofeedback to enhance learning of the tasks. When participants are able to perform these exercises, they will be gradually upgraded until the patient is able to maintain isolated contractions of these muscles for 10 seconds, up to a maximum of 10 repetitions, during normal respiration [
28]. When this level of competence has been achieved, patients will be considered ready to progress to Stage 2.
Stage 2 of the approach involves increasing the complexity of the exercise by progressing through a range of functional tasks and exercises targeting coordination of trunk and limb movement and maintenance of trunk stability. The range and progression of exercises is well set-out in clinical texts [
28] and is individualised to the patient based on this presentation. Participants require the ongoing support of a trained physiotherapist to ensure correct performance of the exercises. Session 12 is a discharge session where the patient's progress will be reviewed and patients will be prescribed exercises to continue at home.
The
placebo intervention is 20 minutes of detuned short wave diathermy and 5 minutes of detuned ultrasound for 12 sessions over an eight week period. This attention control will be used because there is no known treatment effect from the detuned machines, but it has been established in previous trials (including one of our own [
37]) that participants view this as a credible treatment. To increase the perceived credibility of the attention control, participants will undergo an examination including routine screening for contraindications at the first consultation and the normal clinical reassessment that would occur with the active forms of these interventions at each subsequent treatment. Each placebo treatment session will be 30 minutes in duration to match the active treatment sessions.
Participants in both treatment groups will be asked not to seek other treatments for their chronic low back pain and where possible not to change current medications during the treatment period. Several mechanisms will be used to ensure that the trial protocol is consistently applied. Protocol manuals will be developed and staff will be trained to ensure that screening, assessment, randomisation and treatment procedures are conducted according to protocol. To ensure standardisation across sites we will hold regular meetings with site visits and teleconferencing. An independent researcher will monitor a randomly chosen subset to ensure adherence to assessment, randomisation and treatment procedures.
If a participant is concerned about his or her condition during the study, the physiotherapist will screen for potentially serious pathology and, where appropriate, refer the patient to a medical practitioner. The medical practitioner will be asked not to request the participant's group allocation unless it is deemed necessary for medical care. At the completion of the exercise program, patients will be encouraged to continue the home exercise routine demonstrated at the discharge session. Participants will be free to seek other treatment after the experimental period.
After the first treatment session the patient will complete a treatment credibility scale [
41]. At the 8 week follow-up information about side-effects of treatment will be collected using open-ended questioning. At the 12 month follow-up the participants will be asked to rate the helpfulness, understanding and friendliness of therapist and helpfulness of treatment and to nominate which treatment they thought they received. Additionally information about other treatment received for their low back pain during the study period will be sought using open-ended questioning.
Data integrity
The integrity of trial data will be monitored by regularly scrutinising data sheets for omissions and errors. Data will be double entered and the source of any inconsistencies will be explored and resolved.