Table 1.

Interview Guide for ADDOPT Qualitative Analysis

What made you decide to join the pain study?

• Do you remember what your thoughts or ideas about acupuncture were going in to the study?

• Was there anything you were afraid of?

• What made you want to join the study?

Tell me about the history of your past experiences with pain

• When did you first develop the pain?

• What impact has pain had on your life up to now?

• Who has helped you cope with the pain in the past?

• What treatments have worked well for you in the past?

• What aspects of your life have made it more difficult to deal with your pain in the past?

• What aspect of your pain did you feel you most needed help with?

• Does your pain “teach” you anything? What does it teach you?

Tell me about your past experiences of CAM/unconventional treatment approaches

• Had you ever had acupuncture before the study?

• What was that like?

• What other types of therapies have you tried for your pain? Have they been helpful? In what ways have they been helpful?

• Do other people in your life use CAM? What were your views of CAM like before starting this study? How effective did you think CAM was in general? How do you think those effects really work?

• If you did see a CAM practitioner in the past, what was your relationship with that person like?

• How do you see acupuncture as different from your regular pain care?

• Have any other types of therapies been helpful in other aspects of your life?

Tell me about your experience during the study

• What do you think is happening in your body when you get acupuncture? What do you think it does?

• What if anything was different about the acupuncture experience from other health care experiences you have had?

• How did you feel about the acupuncturist?

• Did you learn anything from the process of getting acupuncture treatment? What did you learn?

• Did the acupuncturist treat any medical issues other than your pain? What was that like?

• Did the acupuncturist get to know you as a person?

• During the course of the acupuncture treatment, did anything change about how you feel about things? Did anything change in how you think about or relate to your pain?

ADDOPT, Acupuncture to Decrease Disparities in Outcomes of Pain Treatment; CAM, complementary and alternative medicine.