Improving informed choice for acupuncture and placebo interventions V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Improving informed choice for acupuncture and placebo interventions
IRAS ID
162740
Contact name
D Galpin
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Can psychologically informed websites improve informed choice about acupuncture and placebos in patients with current/recent back pain?
Providing complete and comprehensive information about medical treatments and trials is important. First, such information ensures that fully informed consent is sought. Second, research has shown that having a positive attitude toward an intervention beforehand can make it more effective [1-see protocol for references]. Yet research has shown that patients are not always provided with comprehensive information about medical treatments or trials. For example, patients are often provided with incomplete information about placebo effects before they participate in placebo controlled medical trials [3]. Moreover, there is evidence that existing patient information leaflets from practicing UK acupuncturists make inconsistent claims [4].
This study aims to find out whether providing patients with more accurate and comprehensive information about acupuncture and placebos will allow patients' to make more informed choices. We are also interested to know what information patients look at when presented with websites about placebos/acupuncture, and whether providing such information will change patients’ attitudes towards placebos and acupuncture.
This research is funded by Arthritis Research UK. We have designed: 1) an ‘enhanced’ acupuncture website and: 2) an ‘enhanced’ placebo website, in order to provide psychologically informed, comprehensive information about these interventions. Patients who have back pain, or have had back pain in the last 3 years, will be asked to complete a knowledge quiz about acupuncture and placebos. They will then be asked to view either the ‘enhanced’ websites, or the existing standard information that you would receive about acupuncture and placebos. Patients will then complete some questionnaires about themselves and their back pain, their attitudes towards acupuncture and placebos, their attitudes towards placebo trials, and take part in a the knowledge quiz again about these treatments. The study will take 60-120 minutes.REC name
East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EE/1176
Date of REC Opinion
15 Oct 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion