Thai Massage, and Thai Herbal Compress versus Oral Ibuprofen in Symptomatic Treatment of Osteoarthritis of the Knee: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

The aim of this study was to verify the clinical responses to Thai massage (TM) and Thai herbal compression (THC) for treating osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee in comparison to oral ibuprofen. This study was a randomized, evaluator-blind, controlled trial. Sixty patients with OA of the knee were randomly assigned to receive either a one-hour session of TM or THC (three times weekly) or oral ibuprofen (three times daily). The duration of treatment was three weeks. The clinical assessments included visual analog scale assessing pain and stiffness, Lequesne's functional index, time for climbing up ten steps, and physician's and patient's overall opinions on improvement. In a within-group comparison, each treatment modality caused a significant improvement of all variables determined for outcome assessments. In an among group comparison, all modalities provided nearly comparable clinical efficacy after a three-week symptomatic treatment of OA of the knee, in which a trend toward greatest improvement was likely to be found in THC group. In conclusion, TM and THC generally provided comparable clinical efficacy to oral ibuprofen after three weeks of treatment and could be considered as complementary and alternative treatments for OA of the knee.

The Structural Equation Modeling of Elderly Individuals' Life Expectancy Based On the Sensitivity of Anxiety, Social Support and Perception of Pain

“…The obtained results revealed that life expectancy was significantly related to social support and its dimensions. This finding was consistent with the results of Shakerinia [3] and Souliotis et al (2016). Our results regarding the significant negative relationship between cognitive concern subscale (i.e.…”

Comparison of negative emotional components in older people with normal and poor quality of sleep

“…Rumination, worry, and anxious arousal were significantly different in the elderlies with poor and healthy sleep quality. The obtained data suggested rumination and worry could predict sleep quality, which is consistent with previous studies [5][6][7]. Negative cognitive activities majorly affect sleep quality and its associated problems.…”

Clinical Effects of Thai Herbal Compress: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…The indications of herbal compress used in these studies were pain reduction [ 10 – 19 ] and induction of lactation [ 20 – 22 ]. For studies that investigated the effects of Thai herbal compress on pain reduction, five studies [ 11 , 14 , 15 , 18 , 19 ] were conducted in patients with knee OA, two studies each were conducted in patients with muscle pain [ 16 , 17 ] and labor pain [ 12 , 13 ], and one study [ 10 ] was undertaken in patients with knee OA and patients with muscle pain ( Table 1 ). The majority of the included studies, 11 out of 13, used a quasi-experiment approach [ 10 , 12 – 15 , 17 – 22 ].…”

“…The majority of the included studies, 11 out of 13, used a quasi-experiment approach [ 10 , 12 – 15 , 17 – 22 ]. The remaining studies were randomized controlled trial [ 11 ] and crossover trial [ 16 ]. All 13 studies were conducted in Thailand.…”