Ref Expectation....

[Johnny_Nada]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...?dopt=Abstract

[Evanthis Raftopoulos]

Thanks Matt, very interesting study.

CONCLUSION:

General expectations of benefit have a strong influence on clinical outcomes for patients with neck pain.

Can we say that this study suggests that non specific effects related to any of the interventions appear to be the main drivers in determining effectiveness /symptom relief ? (at least for this patient sample)

The manual therapy interventions of massage (87%) and manipulation (75%) had the highest proportion of patients who expected these interventions to significantly improve neck pain. These were followed by strengthening (70%) and range of motion (54%) exercises.

Interesting spectrum. Also, interesting that strengthening is ranked higher than range of motion exercises. It seems to me that this ranking is consistent with societal and cultural beliefs of pain and rehabilitation.

[Evanthis Raftopoulos]

Full text.

[AnitaKB]

Expecting the same as Wanting?

In reading this study, is it going to far to infer that patients will be benefited by treatments that they want to benefit them?

Is expecting a treatment to help the same as wanting a treatment to help? Or is that stretching the meaning a bit to far when interpreting scientific papers?

Thanks!

[Barrett Dorko]

What is the difference between belief and hope?


To me, hope represents a possibility, belief unleashes behavior and emotion.