Recently, Barry Nguyen has been selected to participate as a Treating Physiotherapist in a Randomised Control Trial involving Physiotherapy Treatment Approaches for Knee Osteoarthritis Sufferers, led my Professor Kim Benell, from the Centre for Health, Exercise, & Sports Medicine, School of Physiotherapy (University of Melbourne).
The following is the research project outline:
“Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a major public health problem causing pain and impaired physical and psychological functioning. There is no cure for knee OA and the traditional approach to treatment focuses on biomedical disease aspects (i.e., exercise, drugs and surgery). Although effective, these methods of treatment do not directly address psychological responses to the disease, such as pain catastrophising, leading to depression and anxiety which are commonly reported by individuals with knee OA. In light of a rapidly ageing population, yet limited resources, there is the need for treatments that enhance pain self-management skills. There is also interest in exploring new models of health service delivery that include changes to traditional health provider roles whilst still respecting the expertise of different disciplines. As Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is traditionally the domain of psychologists, however people with knee OA generally do not access psychologists. Research has shown that non-psychologists can successfully deliver CBT following training by a psychologist. Hence, we aim to conduct the first randomised controlled trial to compare the efficacy of exercise alone, CBT (emphasising pain coping skills training) alone, and exercise combined with CBT all delivered by specially trained physiotherapists in people with knee OA.” – Professor Kim Benell
