According to a study published in JAMA Psychiatry, chronic back pain can be alleviated with a psychological treatment called Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT).
The researchers recruited 151 men and women who reported having back pain for at least six months at an intensity of at least 4 on a scale of 0 to 10. The patients underwent a four-week PRT treatment.
After treatment, 66% of those in the treatment group reported being pain-free or nearly pain-free, compared to 20% of the placebo group and 10% of the no-treatment group. In addition, most of the patients who reported being pain-free maintained relief for one year.
The study focused specifically on PRT for chronic back pain, so future studies are needed to determine if it would yield similar results for other types of chronic pain.
"For a long time we have thought that chronic pain is due primarily to problems in the body, and most treatments to date have targeted that," explained lead author Yoni Ashar. "This treatment is based on the premise that the brain can generate pain in the absence of injury or after an injury has healed, and that people can unlearn that pain. Our study shows it works."
"This isn't suggesting that your pain is not real or that it's 'all in your head,'" said senior author Tor Wager, adding that changes to neural pathways in the brain can remain after an injury is gone. "What it means is that if the causes are in the brain, the solutions may be there, too."
