Gwendolyne G M Scholten-Peeters

Gwendolyne G M Scholten-Peeters
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | VU · Faculty of Behavioural and Human Movement Sciences

PhD, PT, MT

About

193
Publications
76,062
Reads
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3,066
Citations
Introduction
Wendy Scholten-Peeters is Associate Professor of Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She also holds a position as senior lecturer at the SOMT University of Physiotherapy, department of Manual Therapy, Amersfoort, The Netherlands. She chair is of the safety committee of the Dutch Association for Manual Therapy, is program director of Musculoskeletal Health, Amsterdam Movement Science research institute and (co)authored about 90 papers.
Additional affiliations
January 2018 - September 2019
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
August 2014 - December 2015
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Position
  • Senior Researcher
January 2012 - January 2015
Breda University of Applied Sciences
Position
  • Senior Researcher

Publications

Publications (193)
Article
Full-text available
Temporal summation of pain (TSP) is a human proxy for wind-up of dorsal horn neurons as assessed in animals. The common paradigm for eliciting TSP is evoked by repetitive nociceptive stimuli of equal intensity. Various stimulation and assessment protocols have been used. This scoping review aims to provide insight into key elements of TSP stimulati...
Article
Full-text available
Rationale Cervical radiculopathy is initially typically managed conservatively. Surgery is indicated when conservative management fails or with severe/progressive neurological signs. Personalised multimodal physiotherapy could be a promising conservative strategy. However, aggregated evidence on the (cost‐)effectiveness of personalised multimodal p...
Article
The potential to classify low back pain as being characterised by dominant nociceptive, neuropathic, or nociplastic mechanisms is a clinically relevant issue. Preliminary evidence suggests that these low back pain phenotypes might respond differently to treatments; however, more research must be done before making specific recommendations. Accordin...
Article
Background A blended intervention consisting of in-person physiotherapy and psychologically-informed digital health, called Back2Action, was developed to optimise the management of people with persistent spinal pain who also have psychosocial risk factors associated with the development or maintenance of persistent pain. This study aimed to gain in...
Article
Persistent low-back pain (LBP) is highly prevalent in the military. Altered central pain processing is one of the mechanisms found to underlie persistent LBP. Our aim was to explore which factors are associated with altered pain processing in Dutch service members with persistent LBP. This knowledge may guide clinicians in what factors to address i...
Article
Full-text available
Pre-clinical evidence shows that neuropathy is associated with complex neuroimmune responses, which in turn are associated with increased intensity and persistence of neuropathic pain. Routine exercise has the potential to mitigate complications of future nerve damage and persistence of pain through neuroimmune regulation. This systematic review ai...
Article
Question: What is the diagnostic accuracy of the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists (IFOMPT) framework to assess the risk of vascular complications in patients seeking physiotherapy care for neck pain and/or headache? Design: Cross-sectional diagnostic accuracy study. Participants: One hundred and fifty pa...
Article
Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the intraday and interday variability and systematic change over the day of active cervical range of motion (aCROM) measurements in asymptomatic persons using a clinically applicable measurement device. Methods: A prospective observational study was performed. Sixteen adults (8 men and 8 wome...
Article
Full-text available
Abstract Spinal mobilisation/manipulation is a common intervention for spinal pain, yet the working mechanisms are largely unknown. A randomised placebo-controlled trial was conducted to (1) compare the immediate neuroimmune responses following spinal mobilisation/manipulation and placebo spinal mobilisation/manipulation; (2) compare the immediate...
Article
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Objectives: All pain research combined advances the different domains of the biopsychosocial model and its interactions. However, there may be discrepancies between individual countries in their biomedical, psychological or social focus to pain research. As a proxy for this possible discrepancy, we analysed the biopsychosocial orientation of prese...
Article
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Background: Increasing pre-clinical evidence suggests that aerobic exercise positively modulates neuroimmune responses following traumatic nerve injury. However, meta-analyses on neuroimmune outcomes are currently still lacking. This study aimed to synthesize the pre-clinical literature on the effects of aerobic exercise on neuroimmune responses f...
Article
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Introduction: Lifestyle factors are expected to contribute to the persistence and burden of low-back pain (LBP). However, there are no systematic reviews on the (cost-)effectiveness of combined lifestyle interventions for overweight or obese people with LBP. Aim: To assess whether combined lifestyle interventions are (cost-)effective for people...
Article
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Background: A large proportion of people who sustain a whiplash injury will have persistent pain, disability, and participation problems. Several prognostic factors for functional recovery have been reported in the literature but these factors are often evaluated based on differing implementations in clinical practice. Additionally, physiotherapis...
Article
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Background Experienced assessors show good intra-rater reproducibility (within-session and between-session agreement and reliability) when using an algometer to determine pressure pain thresholds (PPT). However, it is unknown whether novice assessors perform equally well. This study aimed to determine within and between-session agreement and reliab...
Article
OBJECTIVES The clinical course of lumbar radiculopathy following microdiscectomy and post-operative physiotherapy varies substantially. No prior studies assessed this variability by deriving outcome trajectories. The primary aims of this study were to evaluate the variability in long-term recovery after lumbar microdiscectomy followed by post-opera...
Article
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Background: In 2020, a revised version of the International IFOMPT Cervical Framework was published. This framework provides both physical therapists and educators the necessary information to guide the assessment of the cervical spine region for potential vascular pathologies of the neck in advance of planned Orthopaedic Manual Therapy (OMT) inte...
Article
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Neuroimmune responses remain understudied in people with neck pain. This study aimed to (1) compare a broad range of systemic neuroimmune responses in people with non-specific neck pain ( N = 112), cervical radiculopathy ( N = 25), and healthy participants ( N = 23); and (2) explore their associations with clinical, psychological and lifestyle fact...
Article
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Quality improvement is now a central tenet in physiotherapy care, and quality indicators (QIs), as measurable elements of care, have been applied to analyze and evaluate the quality of physiotherapy care over the past two decades. QIs, based on Donabedian’s model of quality of care, provide a foundation for measuring (improvements in) quality of ph...
Article
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Importance: There is a paucity of high-quality evidence about the long-term effects (ie, 3-5 years and beyond) of arthroscopic partial meniscectomy vs exercise-based physical therapy for patients with degenerative meniscal tears. Objectives: To compare the 5-year effectiveness of arthroscopic partial meniscectomy and exercise-based physical ther...
Article
Full-text available
Background Establishing a set of uniform classification criteria (CC) for cervical radiculopathy (CR) is required to aid future recruitment of homogenous populations to clinical trials. Objectives To establish expert informed consensus on CC for CR. Design A pre-defined four round e-Delphi study in accordance with the guidance on Conducting and R...
Article
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Objectives The plethora of self-administered questionnaires to assess positive psychosocial factors complicates questionnaire selection. This study aimed to identify and reach consensus on the most suitable self-administered questionnaires to assess resilience, optimism, pain acceptance and social support in people with pain. Design A three-round...
Article
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Introduction Joint mobilisation and manipulation often results in immediate pain relief in people with neck pain. However, the biological mechanisms behind pain relief are largely unknown. There is preliminary evidence that joint mobilisation and manipulation lessens the upregulated neuroimmune responses in people with persistent neck pain. Method...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose Marker-by-treatment analyses are promising new methods in internal medicine, but have not yet been implemented in orthopaedics. With this analysis, specific cut-off points may be obtained, that can potentially identify whether meniscal surgery or physical therapy is the superior intervention for an individual patient. This study aimed to in...
Article
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Introduction Psychosocial factors predict recovery in patients with spinal pain. Several of these factors are modifiable, such as depression and anxiety. However, primary care physiotherapists who typically manage these patients indicate that they do not feel sufficiently competent and equipped to address these factors optimally. We developed an eH...
Article
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Background: Increased pericranial tenderness is considered to be a typical characteristic of tension-type headache (TTH). Assessment of pericranial tenderness in TTH using the total tenderness score is recommended by the International Classification of Headache Disorders-3 (ICHD-3). However, to what extent pericranial tenderness differs between pat...
Article
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Background Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) is measured by comparing pain induced by a test stimulus with pain induced by the same test stimulus, either during (parallel design) or after (sequential design) the conditioning stimulus. Whether design, conditioning stimulus intensity and test stimulus selection affect CPM remains unclear. Methods CP...
Article
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Background Pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) are commonly assessed to quantify mechanical sensitivity in various conditions, including migraine. Digital and analogue algometers are used, but the concurrent validity between these algometers is unknown. Therefore, we assessed the concurrent validity between a digital and analogue algometer to determine...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Increased pericranial tenderness is considered to be a typical characteristic of tension-type headache (TTH). Assessment of pericranial tenderness in TTH using the total tenderness score is recommended by the International Classification of Headache Disorders-3 (ICHD-3). However, to what extent pericranial tenderness differs between pa...
Article
Background Evidence is lacking to what extent patients with Whiplash-Associated Disorders (WAD), those with non-traumatic neck pain (NTNP), and pain-free individuals differ regarding type and severity of impairments, disability, and psychological factors.Objective To compare clinical characteristics between patients with WAD, with NTNP, and pain-fr...
Article
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Objective The association between low-grade systemic inflammation and musculoskeletal pain may be influenced by multiple factors. However, little is known about the relative importance of these factors, and few studies account for them. This Delphi study aimed to reach consensus on the most important confounders which influence the association betw...
Article
Full-text available
Objective Clinicians are recommended to use the clinical reasoning framework developed by the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists (IFOMPT) to provide guidance regarding assessment of the cervical spine and potential of Cervical Artery Dysfunction (CAD) prior to manual therapy and exercise. However, the inter-exa...
Article
Full-text available
Several animal and human studies revealed that joint and nerve mobilisations positively influence neuroimmune responses in neuromusculoskeletal conditions. However, no systematic review and meta-analysis has been performed. Therefore, this study aimed to synthesize the effects of joint and nerve mobilisation compared with sham or no intervention on...
Article
We would like to congratulate the authors van der Meer et al. with their publication (van der Meer et al., 2020). Although we appreciate their work, we do not fully agree with the conclusion of the review and have some concerns, we would like to debate. This systematic review included five randomized clinical trials (RCTs). Although, the studies sh...
Article
Full-text available
Background Mobile eHealth apps are important tools in personal health care management. The Patient Journey app was developed to inform patients with musculoskeletal disorders during their perioperative period. The app contains timely information, video exercises, and functional tasks. Although the Patient Journey app and other health apps are widel...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: Although physical therapy is the recommended treatment in patients over 45 years old with a degenerative meniscal tear, 24% still opt for meniscal surgery. The aim was to identify those patients with a degenerative meniscal tear who will undergo surgery following physical therapy. Methods: The data for this study were generated in the p...
Article
Study Design A cross-sectional inter-examiner agreement and reliability study among physical therapists in primary care. Background musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSU) is frequently used by physical therapists to improve specific diagnosis in patients with shoulder pain, especially for the diagnosis rotator cuff tendinopathy (RCT) including tears. O...
Article
Full-text available
Background It is unknown whether the treatment effects of partial meniscectomy and physical therapy differ when focusing on activities most valued by patients with degenerative meniscal tears. Purpose To compare partial meniscectomy with physical therapy in patients with a degenerative meniscal tear, focusing on patients’ most important functional...
Data
Operationalisation of variables of the clinical reasoning process at several different levels (nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio).
Article
Full-text available
Background Whiplash-associated disorders (WADs) constitute a state of health characterized by a wide diversity of symptoms as a result of impairments of functions, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. Patient-reported outcome measurements (PROMs) and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) seem appropriate when describing and evaluating t...
Raw Data
Supplementary file 1. Overview of variables of context (n=9), process (n=9), outcome (n=7) and structure (n=2) indicators for physiotherapy in patients with Whiplash-Associated Disorders (WAD). Supplementary file 2. Variables per context indicator in patients with Whiplash-Associated Disorders (WAD). Supplementary file 3.Variables per process indic...
Article
Objective To assess the effect of a personalized newsletter compared with a standard newsletter on patient recruitment in physiotherapy research. Methods We performed a cluster-randomized trial including 120 physiotherapists who recruited patients for a prospective cohort and were randomly assigned to either receiving personalized feedback in a ne...
Article
Full-text available
Background Low back pain (LBP) is the second highest cause of health burden in China. Delayed recovery, poor clinical outcomes and persistence of LBP are associated with negative pain beliefs about LBP. Chinese philosophies are nested into the daily life of people in China, which is likely to influence pain beliefs. However, there is lack of knowle...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of patient interview items and clinical tests to diagnose cervical radiculopathy. Design: A prospective diagnostic accuracy study. Participants: Consecutive patients (N=134) with a suspicion of cervical radiculopathy were included. A medical specialist made the diagnosis of cervical radiculopathy...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction The aim of this study was to review information about risk factors for lower extremity running injuries in both short-distance (mean running distance ≤20 km/week and ≤10 km/session) and long-distance runners (mean running distance >20km/week and >10 km/session). Materials and Methods Electronic databases were searched for articles pub...
Preprint
BACKGROUND Mobile eHealth apps are important tools in personal health care management. The Patient Journey app was developed to inform patients with musculoskeletal disorders during their perioperative period. The app contains timely information, video exercises, and functional tasks. Although the Patient Journey app and other health apps are widel...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Low back pain (LBP) is the second highest cause of health burden in China. Delayed recovery, poor clinical outcomes and persistence of LBP are associated with negative pain beliefs about LBP. Chinese philosophies are nested into Chinese people’s daily life, which is likely to influence pain beliefs. However, there is lack of knowledge a...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Low back pain (LBP) is the second highest cause of health burden in China. Delayed recovery, poor clinical outcomes and persistence of LBP are associated with negative pain beliefs about LBP. Chinese philosophies are nested into the daily life of people in China, which is likely to influence pain beliefs. However, there is lack of knowl...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Low back pain (LBP) is the second highest cause of health burden in China. Delayed recovery, poor clinical outcomes and persistence of LBP are associated with negative pain beliefs about LBP. Chinese philosophies are nested into the daily life of people in China, which is likely to influence pain beliefs. However, there is lack of knowl...
Article
Full-text available
Background Quality indicators (QIs) are measurable elements of practice performance and may relate to context, process, outcome and structure. A valid set of QIs have been developed, reflecting the clinical reasoning used in primary care physiotherapy for patients with whiplash-associated disorders (WAD). Donabedian’s model postulates relationships...
Article
Full-text available
Background: People with migraine have localised (i.e., cephalic) mechanical sensitivity. There is uncertainty regarding widespread (i.e., extra-cephalic) mechanical sensitivity and variations in mechanical sensitivity throughout the migraine cycle. Therefore, this study aimed (1) to comprehensively assess mechanical sensitivity in both cephalic an...
Article
Full-text available
Study design: Prospective cohort study. Objective: To develop and internally validate prognostic models based on commonly collected preoperative data for good and poor outcomes of lumbar microdiscectomy followed by physiotherapy. Summary of background data: Lumbar microdiscectomy followed by physiotherapy is a common intervention for lumbar ra...
Article
Depression, anxiety, and somatization influence the recovery of people with musculoskeletal pain. A Delphi study was conducted to reach consensus on the most appropriate self-administered questionnaires to assess these psychosocial factors in people at risk of developing persistent musculoskeletal pain. A multidisciplinary panel of international ex...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Prognostic screening of people with low back pain (LBP) improves utilisation of primary healthcare resources. Whether this also applies to secondary healthcare remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to develop prognostic models to determine at baseline which patients with persistent LBP are likely to have a good and poor outcome t...
Article
Study design: Prospective cohort study including patients with shoulder pain in primary care physiotherapy. Background: There is an increased tendency to use diagnostic ultrasound to aid the diagnostic strategy and target treatment. It is a relatively cheap and accessible imaging technique but the implications for practice and patients are unkno...
Preprint
BACKGROUND The eHealth Impact Questionnaire (eHIQ) provides a standardized method to measure attitudes of eHealth users towards eHealth. It has previously been validated in a population of eHealth users in the United Kingdom, and consists of two parts and five subscales. Part 1 measures attitudes towards eHealth in general and consists of the subsc...
Article
Background The eHealth Impact Questionnaire (eHIQ) provides a standardized method to measure attitudes of electronic health (eHealth) users toward eHealth. It has previously been validated in a population of eHealth users in the United Kingdom and consists of 2 parts and 5 subscales. Part 1 measures attitudes toward eHealth in general and consists...
Article
ABSTRACT Study design: A systematic overview of the literature and an agreement study. Objectives: The aim of this study is to explore the inter-professional agreement of diagnostic musculoskeletal ultrasound (DMUS) between physical therapists (PT) and radiologists, using a new classification strategy based upon the therapeutic consequences in pati...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose To develop valid quality indicators (QIs) for physiotherapy care based on best available evidence, and to use these QIs to explore trends in the quality of physiotherapy care of patients with Whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) using guideline-based routinely collected data (RCD) gathered between 1996 and 2011. Materials and methods The st...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose To describe the clinical course and develop prognostic models for poor recovery in patients with cervical radiculopathy who are managed conservatively. Methods Sixty-one consecutive adults with cervical radiculopathy who were referred for conservative management were included in a prospective cohort study, with 6- and 12-month follow-up as...
Article
Full-text available
The way people with musculoskeletal disorders deal with pain influences their prognosis. Psychosocial factors that influence outcomes include fear of movement, coping, self-efficacy and catastrophizing. A three-round modified Delphi study was conducted with the aim to reach consensus on the most appropriate questionnaires to assess these four psych...