Introduction: Chronic low back pain contributes much to the enormous socioeconomic burden caused globally by chronic pain, defined as pain lasting more than 12 weeks. Professionals and people suffering from chronic low back pain are looking for new methods to treat this condition which would minimize pain with minimal side effects as fast as possible. One of the physiotherapeutic methods of treating pain is kinesiotaping therapy, the analgesic mechanisms of which are not yet clear, some researchers doubt them, and equate this therapy with placebo. The most important conditions for placebo and nocebo interventions in physiotherapy are covered in 5 main characteristics that physiotherapists should be aware of to promote placebo and avoid nocebo in the clinical setting: intervention environment, patient-therapist relationship, treatment, therapist and patient characteristics. Purpose: We wanted to determine whether therapy using elastic adhesive tapes was an effective method of analgesia or whether the reported pain relief was solely due to placebo. Methods: Using search engines and databases due to remote access, we found 8 placebo-controlled randomized trials published between 2010 and 2020 that investigated the analgesic effects of kinesiotherapy in chronic low back pain. Results: Participants in as many as six of the eight studies reported clinically significant improvement in pain, which includes all studies that contained additional physiotherapy procedures. Discussion and conclusion: The intervention protocols varied a lot among the included studies, making the comparison impossible or inaccurate. There is a possibility that the strips applied without elasticity already provide sufficient neurological stimuli and pain relief, so the results of the included studies could be biased by the improper selection of placebo. Experts don't yet have a clear understanding regarding mechanisms of pain, which is a subjective experience, and the placebo response, which is unique to each individual, both of which are strongly influenced by a number of psychosocial factors. Therefore, despite the presence of a control group (natural flow), we were unable to assess the extent to which placebo was involved in pain relief with kinesiotherapy in chronic low back pain. Nevertheless, the results, which show clinical improvement, are in favor of kinesiotherapy in chronic low back pain, especially as adjunctive therapy to established physiotherapy procedures.
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