Psychological Treatment Yields Strong, Lasting Relief for Chronic Pain Sufferers

Summary: A four-week course of pain reprocessing therapy (PRT) provided up to 12 months of relief from pain for chronic pain sufferers. Additionally, the psychological treatment program altered brain networks associated with pain processing.

Source: JAMA Psychiatry.

Rethinking what causes pain and how considerable of a threat it is can provide chronic pain patients with long term relief and make changes to brain networks associated with pain processing, according to new research led by University of Colorado Boulder.

The study discovered that two-thirds of chronic back pain patients who received a four-week psychological treatment called Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) were pain-free or nearly pain-free post-treatment. And most maintained relief at least for one year.

Approximately 85% of people with chronic back pain have what is known as “primary pain,” meaning tests are unable to point out the exact bodily source, such as any tissue damage.

Misfiring neural pathways are also partially to blame. The study reveals that different brain regions, including those generate feelings of reward and fear, trigger more during episodes of chronic pain than acute pain. And among chronic pain patients, certain neural networks are excited to overreact to even mild stimuli.

For the randomized controlled trial, the researchers enrolled 151 participants who experienced back pain for at least six months at an intensity of at least four on a scale of zero to 10.

The participants in the treatment group finished an examination followed by eight one-hour sessions of PRT, a technique developed by Los Angeles-based pain psychologist Alan Gordon. The goal of this treatment is to educate the patient about the role of the brain in generating chronic pain; to help them retrospect their pain as they engage in movements they’d been afraid to do; and to help them deal with the emotions that may worsen their pain.

Before and after the treatment, participants also underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to asses how their brains reacted to a mild pain stimulus.

Post treatment, 66% of participants in the treatment group were pain-free or almost pain-free in comparison to 20% of the placebo group and 10% of the no-treatment group.