TY - JOUR T1 - Compared with usual care, supervised exercise in primary care for people with patellofemoral syndrome does not significantly increase self-reported recovery but improves pain and function in the short term and pain in the long term JF - Evidence Based Medicine JO - Evid Based Med SP - 56 LP - 57 DO - 10.1136/ebm1057 VL - 15 IS - 2 AU - Bill Vicenzino Y1 - 2010/04/01 UR - http://ebm.bmj.com/content/15/2/56.abstract N2 - Commentary on: van Linschoten R, van Middelkoop M, Berger MY, et al. Supervised exercise therapy versus usual care for patellofemoral pain syndrome: an open label randomised controlled trial. BMJ 2009;339:b4074.OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text Patellofemoral pain syndrome is a condition of youth, frequently bilateral1 and a significant problem with high incidence among active university students (9%) and military recruits (15%).2 3 A long-term follow-up study reported that 94% of patients experienced some pain 2–4 years later, and 25% of these patients reported significant symptoms over 20 years.4 Although long-term musculoskeletal pain is not life threatening, the negative consequences for physical activity may have downstream implications for general health and well-being, potentially contributing to hypokinetic diseases or impeding their management through physical activity programmes.This paper is much needed as it reports a quality randomised controlled trial (RCT) that evaluated a supervised exercise programme against the Dutch GP wait-and-see approach. The investigators implemented a well-designed RCT and recruited patients within an appropriate age range (131 patients, aged 14–40 years) using sound inclusion and exclusion … ER -