Results tagged “research” from Hilary King's Blog

New Research Paper

A new paper has been published in the OUP Family Practice (23 December 2009) which reports the findings of research into patients' views and attitudes towards learning the Alexander Technique, as part of the ATEAM Trial into treatments for chronic back pain.

This research looked at the psychological aspects underlying the ATEAM Trial and the outcomes showed that patients found the Alexander Technique was 'effective' and 'made sense' as it could be used during everyday activities, it had a 'convincing rationale' and that teachers provided good support and personal advice. The Alexander Technique was generally seen to be more acceptable to patients than the exercise regime which was prescribed by the doctors.The Technique was also seen as improving the patients' quality of life, which is great!

As one of the teachers selected to teach on the ATEAM Research Trial, I welcome this publication and the findings it reports, which tally with my experience of teaching the Technique to pupils from a wide range of backgrounds who predominantly find the Technique effective, not just for back pain but for helping and preventing the development of many conditions.

Alexander Technique Courses and Classes

If you would like to find out more about the Alexander Technique, you might like to join my upcoming
Introductory Alexander Technique Course, or you might prefer to dive straight in and try some individual lessons which are available on an ongoing basis.

Alexander Technique Pupils - your help is required please!

The Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique, STAT, wants to collect information about as many Alexander Technique pupils as possible and has created a survey which they would like people to fill in and send to them by email or FREEPOST by 15 December 2009.

STAT wants to improve the services and information that is available to all AT pupils and this survey will help them to do that. The last survey was conducted in 2006 and the 2009 survey will be compared with the previous data collected.

All returned surveys (with contact details on them) will be entered for a prize draw, for the chance to win  'The Expanding Self' by Goddard Binkley. This is one of the books recommended in my Alexander Technique Reading Lists.

If you would like to take part and have your voice heard in the Alexander Technique world, with the chance of winning en excellent AT book, you may download a survey form here:

http://www.stat.org.uk/pupilsurvey2009/

Not tried Alexander Technique Lessons yet but you would like to?
You can find out more information about individual lessons and can contact me here:

http://www.hilaryking.net/classes.htm

ATEAM Trial

There's more good news for people suffering with back pain. A new article was published in the BMJ on 11 Dec '08, which gives an economic analysis of the research into different treatments for back pain, including the Alexander Technique, that was published in the BMJ Aug '08.

The findings of the ATEAM Trial show that massage offered little long term benefit for patients with simple back pain and that a Doctor's exercise prescription, on its own, resulted in just a moderate effect on disability scores. However, the Alexander Technique performed better, on all the measured outcomes, than either massage or exercise.

If you would like more information about this research, you may read my article on the topic here:  ATEAM Trial into Treatments for Chronic and Recurrent Back Pain

Economic Analysis of the ATEAM Trial

The Economic Analysis of the ATEAM research results has now shown that just six Alexander Technique lessons followed by exercise was 'the most effective, and cost effective option'. The paper goes on to suggest that this option is one that could possibly be used by the NHS in Primary Care, for patients with chronic back pain.

Meanwhile the Alexander Technique is, of course, still available as private lessons.

It is important to remember that not all back pain can be resolved in just six Alexander Technique lessons plus some exercise. However, it is encouraging to see that the highest significant long term improvement in disability scores plus an improvement the patient's quality of life, can be seen - and that this also offers a cost effective option for chronic back pain sufferers.

If you would like to read the full economic analysis of the ATEAM Trial visit: BMJ 2008;337:a2656

There is good news for people interested in the Alexander Technique and for anyone who is suffering from chronic back pain.

The BMJ Online has just published the results of the ATEAM Research Trial which shows that people who had 1:1 lessons in the Alexander Technique, with a registered teacher, experienced a significant reduction in levels of back pain along with an improvement in the quality of their life. Importantly, these results were sustained one year later.

It is likely that if people maintain their improved use and application of the Technique,  the results could be sustained for even longer but it has not been possible to clinically evaluate this as yet.

Recurrent back pain is extremely common and is one of the main causes of disability and absence from work in developed societies. However, until now there has been little clinical evidence to show which treatments may help people and the ATEAM trial now shows that supervised exercise can have some benefit, massage has less but that the Alexander Technique offers the greatest long term benefit for people with non-specific back pain.

As one of the registered A/T teachers selected to teach on the ATEAM Research Trial, I am particularly pleased that the results show so clearly that learning the Alexander Technique can be of great benefit for people with low back pain. Alexander teachers have known for a long time that the Technique can help people with chronic back pain and it is good that there is now some statistically significant evidence to this effect that we can put before the scientific and medical community.

If you would like more information about the Technique or individual Alexander Technique Lessons in Stoke Newington N16, you may contact me here.

You may also phone me:
+44 (0) 20 7254 9206

Randomised controlled trial of Alexander technique lessons, exercise, and massage (ATEAM) for chronic and recurrent back pain BMJ 2008;337:a884

Formed in 1991, the Alexander Trust is a registered charity with an impressive list of patrons:
Lady Barbirolli, Ursula, Lady Benn, Rev. Dr Martin Israel, Sir Ben Kingsley and Sir Charles Mackerras.

The Trust was set up to promote research and study into the Alexander Technique and to help make Alexander's work more available to the general public.

So far, it has supported book publications and some recordings, plus important research projects into the effects of the Alexander Technique when learnt by people with such conditions as cancer, Parkinson's Disease and repetitive strain injury (RSI).

Being a charity, it welcomes any financial help that people can offer, so that it may continue to support such projects in the future. If you have been helped by learning the Technique and would like to contribute to the Trust's work, you can visit the Trust's Website to find out more:
www.alexandertrust.org.uk