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The Ability of Chronic Pain Patients to Self-diagnose Their Chief Source of Low Back Pain
Sponsor: Northwestern University
Summary
The investigative team will provide 27 slides with bullet points and images of pain referral patterns for different causes (e.g., herniated disc, facet joint arthritis) for patients seen for a new visit with a chief complaint of chronic low back pain. This material is all publicly available but has been compiled in presentation form. This will have educational benefit for patients, discussing clinical signs and symptoms, risk factors and basic treatments. There will also be a smaller control group of that gets a condensed 4-slide presentation. After review of the slides, an independent observer will ask the patient what they think are the 2 most likely causes of their LBP (in order of likelihood) and match that with the attending physician and trainee, who will independently do the same. The investigative team will then determine how concordant the patient's answers are with the physicians and also record outcomes.
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - Any
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
269
Start Date
2024-10-16
Completion Date
2026-10-01
Last Updated
2025-06-25
Healthy Volunteers
No
Conditions
Interventions
Control
Brief 4-slide presentation without a separate session for questions and answers
Education
Patients will review 27 slides that discuss the different etiologies (causes) of back pain, how common they are, what causes them (e.g., wear and tear, trauma), factors that exacerbate and alleviate the pain, how they are diagnosed and treated, and have an opportunity to ask questions.
Locations (1)
Northwestern University Pain Management Center
Chicago, Illinois, United States