Publications by authors named "Hilary Abbey"

Background: Individuals from minority groups have historically faced social injustices. Those from underrepresented groups have been less likely to access both healthcare services and higher education. Little is known about the experiences of underrepresented students during their undergraduate studies in osteopathy in the UK.

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Sham interventions in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of physical, psychological, and self-management (PPS) therapies for pain are highly variable in design and believed to contribute to poor internal validity. However, it has not been formally tested whether the extent to which sham controls resemble the treatment under investigation consistently affects trial outcomes, such as effect sizes, differential attrition, participant expectancy, and blinding effectiveness. Placebo- or sham-controlled RCTs of PPS interventions of clinical pain populations were searched in 12 databases.

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Article Synopsis
  • Blinding in randomized controlled trials for pain therapies is difficult due to the complex and interactive nature of these treatments, necessitating a review of current sham interventions and blinding methods.
  • A systematic search of twelve databases identified 198 unique control interventions from clinical trials published between 2008 and December 2021, primarily focusing on patients with chronic pain, especially in manual therapies.
  • The study highlighted varying degrees of similarity between active and control treatments, and provided insights into improving blinding methods and reporting practices for future trials.
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Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a common, yet challenging condition for both patients and clinicians. Several studies have demonstrated a strong association between CLBP and psychological factors such as anxiety, fear-avoidance, self-efficacy, catastrophizing and depression. These factors are closely linked with emotional states; however, it is unknown whether CLBP patients process their emotions differently from asymptomatic individuals.

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