Yoga for Chronic Low Back Pain

Exclusion Criteria

• •3. Average pain intensity during the week prior to enrollment is 4 or greater on a 0 to 10 numerical pain scale (0=no pain, 10=worst possible pain).
• •4. Compliant with filling out a 2 week daily pain score dairy during the eligibility screening processes.
• •5. Ability to comprehend, read, and write English at a level necessary to understand the yoga class instructions and complete data collection forms. Given that this is the first pilot for the yoga protocol and the first trial of yoga for low back pain for predominantly minority adults at BMC and affiliated clinics, we have decided to enhance feasibility by focusing on English speakers first. Our goal is ultimately to study and offer this intervention in other languages commonly spoken by BMC patients (e.g., Spanish). We fully anticipate that this trial will provide the necessary experience to return to the IRB in the near future with a proposal for a pilot trial of Spanish speakers with chronic low back pain.
• •6. Individuals with sufficient English language ability from all ethnic groups can enroll. However, since this pilot study is specifically targeting minorities with chronic low back pain, we will purposefully allocate 80% (24 of 30) of the openings in the study to minority subjects (ascertained by self-report).
• •7. Consent to participate.
• •1. Age \> 64 years old.
• •2. Yoga use in the previous 12 months.
• •3. Inability to understand English at a level necessary to follow yoga class instructions.
• •4. Pregnancy - although back pain in pregnancy is common and may be amenable to yoga, the causes of the pain are likely different than non specific chronic low back pain in nonpregnant adults.
• •5. Change in pain medications four weeks or fewer prior to enrollment.
• •6. Other back pain treatments (e.g., physical therapy, epidural steroid injection, chiropractic, acupuncture) anticipated to begin in the next 6 months or initiated less than four weeks prior to enrollment.