The cure for debilitating back pain could be mind over matter, shock research suggested today.
Treatments for chronic—or long-term—back pain have long been limited and offer just ‘small to moderate’ temporary benefits.
But now, Australian researchers believe talking therapies can help sufferers live a more active life.
And the benefit can be seen for up to three years after treatment.
Often psychotherapists use various talking therapies to help people with mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression, or other emotional issues, from tackling stress to breaking bad habits.
Scientists today labelled the treatment ‘high-value and low-risk’ and said it ‘markedly reduce the effect of chronic back pain’.
In the study, the researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney focused on a type of psychotherapy called cognitive functional therapy (CFT), which focuses on understanding how thoughts, emotions, and behaviors contribute to pain.
Recruiting more than 1,000 patients with lower back pain, a third were given ‘usual care’, while a third were given CFT.
Treatments for chronic—or long-term—back pain have long been limited and offer just ‘small to moderate’ temporary benefits
The final third were treated with CFT plus another technique known as biofeedback, which tries to teach a person to control automatic body functions.
People who received ‘usual care’ were given what their GP surgery recommended or what they chose from their local services, which can include a combination of pain medication and self-management tips.
Those receiving CFT had seven treatment sessions over 12 weeks, as well as a booster session at 26 weeks, which last between 30 and 60 minutes.
Of the 1,000 participants, 300 people with an average age of 48 continued the study to the three-year follow-up point.
Researchers then found that CFT, and CFT and biofeedback, were both more effective than usual care in reducing activity limitation caused by lower back pain.
And they also were more effective for reducing pain intensity at three years.
There were no significant differences among patients who did and did not use biofeedback techniques, prompting researchers to say the use of biofeedback ‘did not add to effectiveness’.
Writing in the journal Lancet Rheumatology, they said: ‘Treatment sessions of CFT produced sustained effects at three years for people with chronic disabling low back pain.
‘These long-term effects are novel and provide the opportunity to markedly reduce the effect of chronic back pain if the intervention can be widely implemented.’
They added: ‘CFT is the first treatment for chronic disabling low back pain with good evidence of large, long-term effects on disability.
‘It offers a high-value, low-risk intervention with long-term benefits for patients with persistent, disabling low back pain.’
Back pain is the most common form of pain experienced by adults, however, there is usually no immediately identifiable cause.
In many cases, it’s a short-term problem, caused by a strain affecting the muscles, tendons or ligaments.
But around nine million people in England live with back pain, according to the charity Arthritis Research UK.
Share or comment on this article:
Got a bad back? This is the scientific way to cure it… and it’s more effective long term than drugs