Clinical trial: The Effect of "Laying on of Hands" in Older Women With Knee Osteoarthritis (NCT02917356)

Eligibility criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

          -  Clinically and radiographically diagnosed with OA in both knees, according to the
             criteria set by the American College of Rheumatology

          -  Knee OA grade II or III, according to the criteria by Kellgren and Lawrence

          -  Moderate to very severe pain, according to the Western Ontario and McMaster
             Universities (WOMAC) pain subscale) (score between 10 and 20)

          -  Using stable doses of analgesics and NSAIDs during the intervention;

          -  Do not perform physical therapy or other complementary therapies with laying on of
             hands different from those proposed in the current study;

          -  Being able to travel to the rehabilitation site;

          -  Being able to read, understand and speak Portuguese;

          -  Preserved cognition

        Exclusion Criteria:

          -  Having made use of oral or intra-articular corticosteroids for at least 3 months
             before the intervention;

          -  Having made use of intra-articular hyaluronate for at least three months before the
             intervention;

          -  Having full or partial prosthetic hips and/or knees;

          -  Presenting neurological diseases or other rheumatic diseases;

          -  Presenting medical contraindications to perform light to moderate physical activity;

          -  Being absent for two consecutive or three non-consecutive times.
Female
No healthy subjects accepted to join the trial.
Subject must be at least 60 Years old.


Patient description (medical language): A 66-year-old woman comes to the office due to joint pain in the hands and periodic morning stiffness that lasts less than 15 minutes.  The pain is moderately severe and worsens with daily activity. The patient used Tylenol with minimal relief.  Past medical history is notable for hypertension and hypercholesteremia.  Physical examination shows firm nodules over the distal interphalangeal joints, bilaterally. The patient has pain in her knees as well. The knees are stiff in the morning for less than 30 minutes and become worse with climbing stairs. She has some sensation of bone friction during activity. X-ray shows narrowing of the joint space, subchondral bone sclerosis and osteophyte formation along the joints.

Patient description (patient's own words): I'm a 66-year-old woman and I went to my doctor's office because of a bloody joint pain in my hands that has been lasting for a while. The pain comes and go in the morning usually. I feel like a stiffness that last less than 15 minutes. The pain is moderately severe but it gets worse when I'm using my hands. I used Tylenol which helped a little. Apart from that, I suffer from hypertension and high cholesterol. The doctor made me notice that I have bumps around both of my hand joints. I also suffer from my knees and they are also stiff in the morning for around 30 min. It's even worse when I climb up the stairs! I also feel like my bones are rubbing against each other when I'm moving. The X-ray showed that I have narrow joint space, I have sclerosis, and abnormal growths of bone along my joints.

Does the patient match the trial criteria? Entailment