Gua Sha Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain
CompletedNot applicableNCT03333213
View the official record on ClinicalTrials.gov Recruiting status changes often. Contact the study team listed on ClinicalTrials.gov, and talk to your doctor before joining a study.
This study has no listed site in Canada in this snapshot. It is included as part of the worldwide chronic pain corpus.
Brief summary (from the registry)
Chronic low back pain is a major public health burden with only limited evidence of effectiveness for complementary and traditional therapies. Gua Sha is a traditional East Asian therapy traditionally used in the treatment of spinal pain. This study aimed to test the efficacy of Gua Sha therapy in patients with chronic low back pain A total of 50 patients with chronic low back pain were randomized to either two Gua Sha treatments (n=25) or a waitlist control group (n=25). Primary outcome measure was current pain intensity on a 100-mm visual analog scale; secondary outcome measures included back-related function (Oswestry Disability Index), movement-related pain (modified Pain on Movement Questionnaire), as well as pressure pain threshold, mechanical detection threshold, and vibration detection threshold.
Study details
- Official title
- Gua Sha Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain: a Randomized Controlled Trial
- Conditions
- Interventions
- Other: Gua Sha
- Sponsor
- Universität Duisburg-Essen
- Start date
- 2009-01-01
- Primary completion
- 2010-12-01
- Sex
- All
- Age range
- from 18 Years to 75 Years
- Results posted
- No results posted in this snapshot
- Total sites listed
- 0
Eligibility criteria
Show eligibility criteria (verbatim from the registry)
Inclusion Criteria: * non-specific low back pain at least once weekly for at least the previous 3 months * average back pain intensity hat least 40mm on a 100mm visual analog scale (VAS) Exclusion Criteria: * specific low back pain due to trauma, disc protrusion, whiplash, congenital deformity of the spine, spinal stenosis, neoplasm, inflammatory rheumatic disease, or oncologic disease * dystonia * pregnancy * invasive treatment of the spine or spinal surgery within the previous 4 weeks * oral steroids or anticoagulants * hemophilia or a skin condition in the area to be treated * started a new treatment for low back pain within the previous month or planning to start a new treatment within the next month
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (US National Library of Medicine), snapshot October 2026. Check the registry for current recruiting status. Record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03333213