Clinical Pharmacology & Biopharmaceutics
Open Access

Abstract

Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the combination of â�?�?number of treatmentsâ�? and â�?�?interval between treatmentsâ�? in order to optimize the effect of osteopathic treatment of foot related pain. Material & Methods: The material consists of 32 female and 22 male patients with a mean age of 42 years and a BMI of 27.0. The study was performed as an observer blinded, randomised single centre trial with 32-factorial design. â�?�?Number of treatmentsâ�? and â�?�?Treatment intervalsâ�? was used as the two factors. The patients were allocated to treatment groups by nested block randomisation. The primary variables â�?�?Pain at restâ�? and â�?�?Pain at loadâ�? were recorded on 10 cm Visual Analogue Scales and the Ankle-Brachial Index. Results: Four treatments with seven days treatment interval were the superior combination regarding reduction in pain at rest (p<0.01). Four treatments gave significant (p<0.01) reduction in pain at load both for seven and ten days treatment intervals, but 10 days treatment intervals were the superior combination for reduction in pain at load. Number of treatments seems to be the dominant factor regarding both pain reductions at rest and at load. The study detected an obvious interaction between the two factors. By increasing the number of treatments, the duration between treatments has to be increased similarly. Conclusion: The combinations for obtaining the largest pain reduction at rest and load seem to be four treatments with seven and ten days treatment intervals, respectively.

Biography

Joachim Kaufmann has completed his MSc 2004 at the University of Greenwich/GB and the European School of Osteopathy (ESO), Maidstone/GB. He is the owner of Bergen Osteopatiklinikk and Korpus Berlin - clinics for treatment of injured athletes and other muscle skeletal pain, and is a teacher at different schools in the Manual field in Europe from over 20 years. He is a part of the coaching staff of the German Basketball National team since 2000 and worked in different medical staff from soccer to track and field. Now, he is in a PhD project in Norway.

Email: Jo@Bergenok.no