Effect of osteopathic manipulative treatment on pain in palliative care patients: a randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Abstract

Introduction: Standard osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) is used as a supportive care for pain management in cancer patients.

Objectives: The present study aimed to compare the efficacy of OMT with that of a sham treatment to attenuate pain in cancer patients in a palliative care unit.

Methods: This randomized clinical trial was a simple blind, monocentric, placebo-controlled study. Seventy-five patients were randomly distributed between standard and sham OMT sessions at a 1:1 ratio, receiving standard or sham treatment every 2 days for the 7 days of the study. Patients were assessed using a self-administered visual analog scale (VAS)-ranging from 0 to 100, recorded in the morning and evening. They also completed the QLQ-C15-PAL quality-of-life questionnaire on the first and last day of the study. For participants with controlled analgesia pumps, the number of analgesic doses was recorded.

Results: The OMT group demonstrated a significant effect of days, circadian period, and group on VAS pain decrease (P < 0.05). The VAS pain score for the OMT group exhibited a notable decline from the third day (D3 pm) (P = 0.03) to D6 pm (P = 1.28 × 10^-05) with 43.2% improvement by the conclusion of the study. On D6, the quality-of-life score exhibited a tendency towards improvement. Patients with analgesia pumps showed a 31.58% reduction in their demand for analgesics (P = 0.016). No significant results were observed between D0 and D3.

Conclusion: It is hypothesized that OMT could prove an efficacious method of pain management in cancer patients receiving palliative care, in addition to conventional cancer treatment.