Highlights
- •Treatment expectations predict therapy outcomes in acupuncture treatment.
- •Patients and providers might differ in their expectations.
- •These dyads of patients and providers were clustered in six homogenous clusters with high reliability.
- •A good match between expectations increased the chances of treatment benefits and vice versa.
Abstract
Our study aimed to identify patient–provider clusters with different patterns of expectations
for treatment outcomes. All patients (n = 885) received acupuncture treatment from
physicians for their migraine, headache, osteoarthritis, or chronic low back pain.
We identified 6 robust patient–provider expectation clusters (PPECs; interclassification
reliability >.89) showing differences between patients and providers in their expected
treatment responses (eg, unrealistic optimists, optimistic doubters). For example,
the optimistic doubters had high expectations for their treatment outcomes but were
skeptical of the benefits of acupuncture in general. The providers expected good improvements
for these patients. These 6 PPECs differed in their clinical characteristics and in
the associated treatment responses. For example, unrealistic optimists showed the
weakest treatment benefits after 6 months; other PPECs and clinical patterns are also
presented in the report. Our study suggests that comparing the expectations of patients
and providers is a valuable approach to identify groups of patients with greater responsiveness
and those with limited treatment benefits.
Perspective
Patients and providers of acupuncture might vary in their expectation of the treatment
effect and in clinical practice the overlap of expectations of patients and providers
should be considered as important in initial consultations.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 24, 2016
Accepted:
January 27,
2016
Received in revised form:
January 16,
2016
Received:
May 18,
2015
Footnotes
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 by the American Pain Society
