Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37704984›Full record

Trial reportBMC complementary medicine and therapies2023

Yoga is effective for treating chronic pain in veterans with Gulf War Illness at long-term follow-up.

Santiago Allende, Danielle C Mathersul, Jay R Schulz-Heik, Timothy J Avery, Louise Mahoney, Peter J Bayley

Registry-linked trialOpen access · goldAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in BMC complementary medicine and therapies, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02378025 (A Multimodal Evaluation of the Comparative Efficacy of Yoga Versus a Patient Centered Support Group for Treating Chronic Pain in Gulf War Illness), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
0.9field-weighted citation impact, top 26% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT02378025 nacompletednot on this map

A Multimodal Evaluation of the Comparative Efficacy of Yoga Versus a Patient Centered Support Group for Treating Chronic Pain in Gulf War Illness

TypeinterventionalSponsorPalo Alto Veterans Institute for ResearchRan2015 to 2018Enrolled75ConditionsChronic Pain, Gulf War Illness, Chronic IllnessArmsYoga Group, Pain Management Wellness Group
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Santiago AllendeWar Related Illness and Injury Study Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA. sallende@stanford.edu.
Danielle C MathersulWar Related Illness and Injury Study Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Jay R Schulz-HeikWar Related Illness and Injury Study Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Timothy J AveryWar Related Illness and Injury Study Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Louise MahoneyWar Related Illness and Injury Study Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Peter J BayleyWar Related Illness and Injury Study Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
VA Palo Alto Health Care System · USPeninsula HealthCare Connection · USStanford University · US

Funding

Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs 11488016
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundClinical Practice Guidelines for Gulf War Illness (GWI) recommend integrative health approaches such as yoga for relief from symptoms, yet little is known about the long-term efficacy of yoga in reducing symptoms of GWI. Here, we evaluated the long-term efficacy of yoga and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) chronic pain treatment in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of 75 Veterans (57 men, 42-71 ± 7.1 years of age) with Gulf War Illness (GWI).

methodsParticipants received either 10 weeks of yoga or 10 weeks of CBT for chronic pain. The primary outcome measures were pain severity, and pain interference (Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form). The secondary outcome measures were fatigue, as indicated by a measure of functional exercise capacity (6-Minute Walk Test), depression, autonomic symptom severity, and quality of life. Piecewise linear mixed models were used to examine study hypotheses.

resultsCompared to the CBT group, yoga was associated with greater reductions in pain severity during the 6-month follow-up period (group × time interaction: b = 0.036, se = 0.014, p = .011). Although we did not find between-group differences in the other primary or secondary outcome measures during follow-up (p's > 0.05), exploratory analyses revealed within-group improvements in pain interference, total pain (an experimental outcome variable which combines pain severity and interference), and fatigue in the yoga group (p's < 0.05) but not in the CBT group.

conclusionsThis is the first study to report long-term follow-up results of yoga as a treatment for GWI. Our results suggest that yoga may offer long-term efficacy in reducing pain, which is a core symptom of GWI.

trial registrationSecondary analyses of ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02378025.

Indexed as

Chronic PainPersian Gulf SyndromeVeteransYogaAdultAgedFatigueFemaleFollow-Up StudiesHumansMaleMiddle AgedChronic painFatigueGulf war illnessLong-term outcomesRandomized clinical trial

Identifiers

PMID37704984
PMCPMC10498617
OpenAlexW4386713529

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.