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Specific and Shared Mechanisms Associated With Treatment for Chronic Neck Pain

NCT05940012 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 122

Last updated 2025-11-18

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

It is expected that different physical therapy treatments influence outcomes in many different ways. Each treatment is assumed to have a "specific" treatment mechanism, which explains how that specific treatment works. Different treatments also have "shared" mechanisms, which are similar across many different types of interventions (e.g., exercise, cognitive treatments or manual therapy). In this study, the study team will investigate the several types of specific treatment mechanisms of a manual therapy-based approach and an exercise-based approach and the study team will compare these to see if they are different. The patient population will include individuals with chronic neck pain, which is a condition that leads to notable disability and pain. The study team will also evaluate several shared treatment mechanisms to see if these are similar across the two treatments (e.g., manual therapy versus exercise). The study team expects to find that there are some specific treatment mechanisms with each approach (manual therapy versus exercise) but also several "shared" mechanisms that are similar across the two seemingly different approaches. These will likely influence the outcomes and may help explain why clinicians see similar outcomes across both treatment groups for chronic neck pain. This study is important because no one has investigated whether the outcomes that occur with chronic neck pain are mostly influenced by specific or shared treatment mechanisms. Interestingly, in the psychological literature, shared treatment mechanisms demonstrate the strongest influence (more than specific treatment mechanisms).

Conditions

  • Chronic Neck Pain

Interventions

OTHER

Manual Therapy

Hands on treatments including manipulation, mobilization and soft-tissue mobilization with therapeutic intent.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Saint-Joseph University

    collaborator OTHER

  • Medical University of South Carolina

    collaborator OTHER

  • Duke University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Chad E Cook · Duke University

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2024-01-01
Primary Completion
2025-04-30
Completion
2025-10-22

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05940012 on ClinicalTrials.gov