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Back Pain

Back Clinic Back Pain Chiropractic Treatment Team. At the El Paso Back Clinic, we take back pain very seriously.

After diagnosing the root cause of your discomfort/pain, we’ll do everything within our power to cure the area and relieve your symptoms.

Common causes of back pain:
There is an infinite number of forms of back pain, and a variety of injuries and diseases may cause discomfort in this area of the body. One of the most Frequent ones we see one of our patients in East Side El Paso and surrounding areas comprise:

Disc Herniation
Inside the backbone are flexible discs that cushion your bones and absorb shock. Whenever these discs are broken, they may compress a nerve leading to lower extremity numbness. StressWhen a muscle at the trunk is overexerted or hurt, causing stiffness and pain, this type of injury is generally classified as a back strain. This can be the consequence of attempting to lift an item that can result in excruciating pain and impairment and is too heavy. Diagnosing the underlying cause of your pain.

Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is characterized by the slow wearing down of protective cartilage. When the back is affected by this condition, it causes damage to the bones that results in chronic pain, stiffness, and limited mobility. SprainIf ligaments in your spine and back are stretched or torn, it’s called a spine sprain. Typically, this injury causes pain in the region. Spasms cause back muscles to overwork they may start to contract, and can even stay contracted– also called a muscle spasm. Muscle spasms can present with pain and stiffness until the strain resolves.

We want to accomplish the diagnosis straight away, integrating a background and exam along with state-of-the-art imaging, so we can provide you with the most efficient therapy choices. To begin, we will speak with you regarding your symptoms, which will provide us with critical information regarding your underlying condition. We’ll then perform a physical exam, during which we’ll check for posture issues, evaluate your spine and assess your backbone. If we guess injuries, like a disk or neurological injury, we’ll probably order imaging tests to obtain an analysis.

Regenerative remedies to your back pain. At the El Paso Back Clinic, you may be certain that you’re in the best possible hands with our Doctor of Chiropractic and Massage Therapist. Our purpose during your pain treatment isn’t only to relieve your symptoms — but also to avoid a recurrence and to treat your pain.


Management and Treatment Guidelines for Low Back Pain in El Paso, TX

Management and Treatment Guidelines for Low Back Pain in El Paso, TX

According to the American Chiropractic Association, approximately 31 million people in the United States experience low back pain throughout their lifetime. Low back pain can occur due to a variety of injuries and/or conditions and it can range in severity. Trauma from an injury or an aggravated condition can cause symptoms ranging from mild and annoying to intense and debilitating. The most common type of low back pain is described as a dull, achy, burning or spasming sensation.

 

Diagnosing the source of a patient’s low back pain can be challenging, however, several healthcare professionals are qualified and experienced in the treatment of spinal health issues, including chiropractors and physical therapists. As a matter of fact, new guidelines from the American Medical Association, or the AMA, have suggested that people affected with low back pain should seek chiropractic care before seeking treatment from conventional medical doctors because chiropractors primarily focus on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of injuries and/or conditions affecting the musculoskeletal and nervous system.

 

Chiropractic care is a well-known alternative treatment option commonly utilized to treat injuries and/or conditions causing low back pain. Regular chiropractic care can provide safe and effective, non-invasive treatment without the need to utilize drugs and/or medications. A chiropractor, or doctor of chiropractic, will commonly use spinal adjustments and manual manipulations to carefully correct any spinal misalignment, or subluxation, along the lumbar spine which may be causing symptoms of low back pain. Other treatment methods commonly utilized in chiropractic care include, hot or cold compresses, massage and physical therapy modalities like interferential therapy or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulations, or TENS and spinal decompression therapy. A chiropractor may also offer nutritional advice and fitness plans to speed up the patient’s recovery process.

 

 

By restoring the original alignment of the spine, a chiropractor can help improve the function of the spine by reducing pain and discomfort, decreasing inflammation, and improving range of motion and flexibility as well as increasing strength. Chiropractic care allows the human body to naturally heal itself in order to better be able to manage symptoms associated with low back pain. Based on the diagnosis of a patient, a doctor of chiropractic may also refer patients to other healthcare professionals for further treatment. The purpose of the following article is to demonstrate an overview of updated clinical treatment guidelines for the proper management of non-specific low back pain in a primary care setting.

 

An Updated Overview of Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Non-Specific Low Back Pain in Primary Care

 

Abstract

 

The aim of this study was to present and compare the content of (inter)national clinical guidelines for the management of low back pain. To rationalise the management of low back pain, evidence-based clinical guidelines have been issued in many countries. Given that the available scientific evidence is the same, irrespective of the country, one would expect these guidelines to include more or less similar recommendations regarding diagnosis and treatment. We updated a previous review that included clinical guidelines published up to and including the year 2000. Guidelines were included that met the following criteria: the target group consisted mainly of primary health care professionals, and the guideline was published in English, German, Finnish, Spanish, Norwegian, or Dutch. Only one guideline per country was included: the one most recently published. This updated review includes national clinical guidelines from 13 countries and 2 international clinical guidelines from Europe published from 2000 until 2008. The content of the guidelines appeared to be quite similar regarding the diagnostic classification (diagnostic triage) and the use of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Consistent features for acute low back pain were the early and gradual activation of patients, the discouragement of prescribed bed rest and the recognition of psychosocial factors as risk factors for chronicity. For chronic low back pain, consistent features included supervised exercises, cognitive behavioural therapy and multidisciplinary treatment. However, there are some discrepancies for recommendations regarding spinal manipulation and drug treatment for acute and chronic low back pain. The comparison of international clinical guidelines for the management of low back pain showed that diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations are generally similar. There are also some differences which may be due to a lack of strong evidence regarding these topics or due to differences in local health care systems. The implementation of these clinical guidelines remains a challenge for clinical practice and research.

 

Keywords: Low back pain, Clinical guidelines, Review, Diagnosis, Treatment

 

Dr Jimenez White Coat

Dr. Alex Jimenez’s Insight

Low back pain is one of the most common reasons for doctor office visits each year. In fact, about 80 percent of the population in the United States will suffer from back pain at least once throughout their lifetime. Regular chiropractic care can help prevent, treat and manage low back pain symptoms. Chiropractic care can provide many other benefits as well. Patient’s who have received chiropractic care for injuries and/or conditions affecting the musculoskeletal and nervous systems have experienced improvements to their digestive health and have reported better and deeper sleep after a visit to a chiropractor office. Furthermore, research studies have demonstrated that chiropractic care can help build your immune system. Chiropractic care has even been associated with stress management, reducing depression and anxiety levels. Chiropractic care can provide low back pain relief and improve overall health and wellness.

 

Introduction

 

Low back pain remains a condition with a relatively high incidence and prevalence. Following a new episode, the pain typically improves substantially but does not resolve completely during the first 4�6 weeks. In most people the pain and associated disability persist for months; however, only a small proportion remains severely disabled [1]. For those whose pain does resolve completely, recurrence during the next 12 months is not uncommon [2, 3].

 

There is a wide acceptance that the management of low back pain should begin in primary care. The challenge for primary care clinicians is that back pain is but one of many conditions that they manage. For example while back pain, in absolute numbers, is the eighth most common condition managed by Australian GPs, it only accounts for 1.8% of their case load [4]. To assist primary care practitioners to provide care that is aligned with the best evidence, clinical practice guidelines have been produced in many countries around the world.

 

The first low back pain guideline was published in 1987 by the Quebec Task Force with authors pointing to the absence of high-quality evidence to guide decision making [5]. Since that time there has been a strong growth in research addressing diagnosis and prognosis but especially research on therapy. As an example of this growth, at the time of the Spitzer guideline [5] there were only 108 randomised controlled trials evaluating physiotherapy treatments for low back pain but as at April 2009 there were 958.1 The Cochrane database (Central) currently lists more than 2500 controlled trials evaluating treatment for back and neck pain. The evidence from these trials for most interventions is summarised in systematic reviews and meta-analysis. The Cochrane Back Review Group, for example, has now published 32 systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials evaluating interventions for low back pain. In the near future, systematic reviews of studies evaluating diagnostic intervention for low back pain will also be included in the Cochrane Library.

 

This dramatic growth in research would be a comfort to those who were members of the original Quebec Task Force but perhaps a challenge to those who served on committees for later guidelines. With a large and ever increasing research base to inform guidelines two potential problems arise. The first and most obvious is that the recommendations in the guidelines may become out of date. The second is that with a wealth of information to consider, the various committees producing guidelines may produce quite different treatment recommendations. At the same time one can argue that if more precise and valid information becomes available recommendations will become more similar. A previous systematic review of clinical practice guidelines was conducted in 2001 [6]. In that review we assessed the available clinical guidelines from 11 countries and concluded that the guidelines provided generally similar recommendations regarding the diagnostic classification (diagnostic triage) and the use of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Consistent features were the early and gradual activation of patients, the discouragement of prescribed bed rest, and the recognition of psychosocial factors as risk factors for chronicity. However, there were discrepancies for recommendations regarding exercise therapy, spinal manipulation, muscle relaxants, and patient information.

 

Bouwmeester et al. [7] concluded recently that the quality of mono- and multidisciplinary clinical guidelines for the management of low back pain, as measured with the AGREE instrument has improved over time. The present article focuses on the actual content of national clinical guidelines on low back pain which have been issued since 2001. These guidelines are compared regarding the content of their recommendations, the target group, the guideline committee and its procedures, and the extent to which the recommendations were based on the available literature (the scientific evidence). We also highlight any changes in recommendations that have occurred over time in comparison with our previous review [6].

 

Methods

 

Clinical guidelines were searched using electronic databases covering the period 2000�2008: Medline (key words: low back pain, clinical guidelines), PEDro (key words: low back pain, practice guidelines, combined with AND), National Guideline Clearinghouse (www.guideline.gov; key word: low back pain), and National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) (www.nice.org.uk; key word: low back pain). Guidelines used in the previous review were checked for updates. We also checked the content and reference list of relevant reviews on guidelines, included a search on the Web of Science citation index for articles citing the previous review and asked experts in the field. To be included in this review, the guidelines had to meet the following criteria: (1) the guideline concerned the diagnosis and clinical management of low back pain, (2) the guideline was targeted at a multidisciplinary audience in the primary care setting, and (3) the guideline was available in English, German, Finnish, Spanish, Norwegian or Dutch because documents in these languages could be read by the reviewers. Only one guideline was included per country unless there were separate guidelines for acute and chronic low back pain. Where more than one eligible guideline was available for a country, we included the most recent guideline issued by a national body. Guidelines from the following countries/regions and agencies (year of publication) were included:

 

  • Australia, National Health and Medical Research Council (2003) [8];
  • Austria, Center for Excellence for Orthopaedic Pain Management Speising (2007) [9];
  • Canada, Clinic on Low back Pain in Interdisciplinary Practice (2007) [10];
  • Europe, COST B13 Working Group on Guidelines for the Management of Acute Low Back Pain in Primary Care (2004) [11];
  • Europe, COST B13 Working Group on Guidelines for the Management of Chronic Low Back Pain in Primary Care (2004) [12];
  • Finland, Working group by the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim and the Societas Medicinae Physicalis et Rehabilitationis Fenniae. Duodecim (2008) [13];
  • France, Agence Nationale d�Accreditation et d�Evaluation en Sante (2000) [14];
  • Germany, Drug Committee of the German Medical Society (2007) [15];
  • Italy, Italian Scientific Spine Institute (2006) [16];
  • New Zealand, New Zealand Guidelines Group (2004) [17];
  • Norway, Formi & Sosial- og helsedirectorated (2007) [18];
  • Spain, the Spanish Back Pain Research Network (2005) [19];
  • The Netherlands, The Dutch Institute for Healthcare Improvement (CBO) (2003) [20];
  • United Kingdom, National Health Service (2008) [21]; and
  • United States, American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society (2007) [22].

 

Data regarding the diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations as well as background information of the guideline process were extracted from the guidelines by four of the authors, each assessing 3�4 guidelines. The Finnish and Norwegian guidelines were assessed by colleagues with relevant language skills from The Netherlands and Finland. The focus was on the process of guideline development and the recommendations for diagnosis and treatment. We used the same data categories as in the previous review to facilitate comparisons (see Tables 1, ?,2,2, ?,33).

 

Table 1 Clinical Guidelines Recommendations

 

Table 2 Clinical Guidelines Recommendations

Table 3 Implementation of Clinical Guidelines

 

Results

 

Patient Population

 

Each of the guidelines considered the duration of symptoms but they vary in their scope and definitions. For example, the guidelines from Australia and New Zealand focus on acute low back pain whereas the guidelines from Austria and Germany consider acute, subacute, chronic and recurrent low back pain. The cut-off for chronic is not always specified but when it was, 12 weeks was used. Sometimes the word persistent rather than chronic was used. Two guidelines (Austrian and German) provide recommendations for recurrent low back pain but do not explicitly define �recurrent�.

 

Diagnostic Recommendations

 

Table 1 compares the diagnostic classification and the recommendations on diagnostic procedures in the various guidelines. All guidelines recommend a diagnostic triage where patients are classified as having (2) non-specific low back pain, (2) suspected or confirmed serious pathology (�red flag� conditions such as tumour, infection or fracture) and (3) radicular syndrome. Some guidelines, e.g. the Australian and New Zealand guidelines, do not distinguish between non-specific low back pain and radicular syndrome. The German guideline also classifies a group of patients who are at risk for chronicity, based on �yellow flags�.

 

All guidelines are consistent in their recommendations that diagnostic procedures should focus on the identification of red flags and the exclusion of specific diseases (sometimes including radicular syndrome). Red flags include, for example, age at onset (<20 or >55 years), significant trauma, unexplained weight loss and widespread neurologic changes. The types of physical examination and physical tests that are recommended show some variation. Some, such as the European guideline, limit the examination to a neurological screen whereas others advocate a more comprehensive musculoskeletal (including inspection, range of motion/spinal mobility, palpation, and functional limitation) and neurological examination. The components of the neurologic screening are not always explicit but where they are, comprise testing of strength, reflexes, sensation and straight leg raising.

 

None of the guidelines recommend routine use of imaging, with imaging recommended at the initial visit only for cases of suspected serious pathology (e.g. Australian, European) or where the proposed treatment (e.g. manipulation) requires the exclusion of a specific cause of low back pain (French). Imaging is sometimes recommended where sufficient progress is not being made but the time cut-off varies from 4 to 7 weeks. Guidelines often recommend MRI in cases with red flags (e.g. European, Finland, Germany).

 

All guidelines mention psychosocial factors associated with poor prognosis with some describing them as �yellow flags�. There is, however, considerable variation in the amount of details given about how to assess �yellow flags� or the optimal timing of the assessment. The Canadian and the New Zealand guidelines provide specific tools for identifying yellow flags and clear guidelines for what should be done once yellow flags are identified.

 

Summary of Common Recommendations

 

Therapeutic Recommendations

 

Table 2 compares therapeutic recommendations given in the various guidelines. Patient advice and information is recommended in all guidelines. The common message is that patients should be reassured that they do not have a serious disease, that they should stay as active as possible and progressively increase their activity levels. Compared with the previous review, the current guidelines increasingly mention early return to work (despite having low back pain) in their list of recommendations.

 

Recommendations for the prescription of medication are generally consistent. Paracetamol/acetaminophen is usually recommended as a first choice because of the lower incidence of gastrointestinal side effects. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are the second choice in cases where paracetamol is not sufficient. There is some variation between guidelines with regard to recommendations for opioids, muscle relaxants, steroids, antidepressant and anticonvulsive medication as co-medication for pain relief. Where the mode of consumption of analgesics is described, time-contingent rather than pain-contingent use, is advocated.

 

There is now broad consensus that bed rest should be discouraged as a treatment for low back pain. Some guidelines state that if bed rest is indicated because of severity of pain, then it should not be advised for more than 2 days (e.g., Germany, New Zealand, Spain, Norway). The Italian guideline advises 2�4 days of bed rest for major sciatica but does clearly describe how major sciatica differs from sciatica where bed rest is contraindicated.

 

There is also consensus that a supervised exercise programme (as distinct from encouraging resumption of normal activity) is not indicated for acute low back pain. Those guidelines that consider subacute and chronic low back pain recommend exercise but note that there is no evidence that one form of exercise is superior to another. The European guideline advises against exercise that requires expensive training and machines. The one area of therapy that is contentious is the use of spinal manipulation. Some guidelines do not recommend the treatment (e.g. Spanish, Australian), some advise that it is optional (e.g. Austrian, Italian) and some suggest a short course for those who do not respond to the first line of treatment (e.g. US, the Netherlands). For some it is optional only in the first weeks of an episode in acute low back pain (e.g. Canada, Finland, Norway, Germany, New Zealand). The French guideline advises that there is no evidence to recommend one form of manual therapy over another.

 

Summary of Common Recommendations 2

 

Setting. Table 3 shows some background variables related to the development of the guidelines in the various countries. Most of the guidelines focus on primary care though some also include secondary care. The Spanish guideline is written for health professions that treat low back pain.

 

Guideline committee. The various committees responsible for the development and publication of guidelines appear to be different in size and in the professional disciplines involved. Most committees are characterised by their multidisciplinary membership. These usually included primary care physicians, physical and manual therapists, orthopaedic surgeons, rheumatologists, radiologists, occupational and rehabilitation physicians. The number of members varied from 7 to 31. Only three committees included consumer representation (Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands).

 

Evidence-based review. All guidelines are more or less based on a comprehensive literature search, including Cochrane Library, Medline, Embase. Some committees (Austria, Germany, Spain) based their recommendations, entirely or in part, on the European guidelines. Most guidelines use an explicit weighting of the strength of the evidence.

 

The Dutch, UK, European, Finnish, German, Norwegian and Australian guidelines give direct links between the actual recommendations and the evidence (via specific references) on which the recommendations are based. Other guidelines do not present a direct link but state that for recommendation there is at least moderate or fair evidence (New Zealand, US). Most committees use consensus methods, mostly by group discussions when the evidence was not convincing or not available.

 

Presentation and implementation. The activities related to the publication and dissemination of the various guidelines show some differences and some similarities. In most cases, the guidelines are accompanied by easily accessible summaries for practitioners and booklets for patients. Systematic implementation activities are rare. In most cases, the printed versions of the guidelines are published in national journals and/or disseminated through professional organisations to the target practitioners. Most guidelines are available on the websites of participating organisation. In many countries, regular updates of the guidelines are planned with time horizons of 3�5 years.

 

Discussion

 

In the past decade many countries have issued (updated) clinical guidelines for the management of low back pain. In general these guidelines provide similar advice on the management of low back pain. Common recommendations are the diagnostic triage of patients with low back pain, restricted use of radiographs, advice on early and progressive activation of patients, and the related discouragement of bed rest. The recognition of psychosocial factors as a risk factor for chronicity is also consistent across all guidelines, though with varying emphasis and detail. There are also differences in the recommendations provided by the guidelines, but these are few and probably less than could expected for different health care systems and cultures. One of the reasons for the similarity of the guidelines might be that guideline committees are usually aware of the content of other guidelines and are motivated to produce similar recommendations that are deemed sensible and relevant. In some instances the guidelines are a national adaptation (e.g. in Spain) of the European guidelines.

 

We do not present an exhaustive overview of all clinical guidelines available, but focused on national multidisciplinary guidelines. This enables a reasonable comparison of recommended approaches across countries. A limitation is thus that not all available guidelines, including mono-disciplinary guidelines, are included.

 

Use of Available Evidence

 

Most reviews are based on extensive literature reviews. Cochrane reviews are frequently used, comprehensive searches in databases such as Medline, Embase and PEDro. Increasingly the literature reviews of other and previous guidelines are used as starting point for the (additional) searches. Most committees also use some kind of weighting system and rating of the evidence. There is some variation in the way the recommendations are presented. In some guidelines all the recommendations are directly linked with references to the supporting evidence, and in others a general remark is made that for all recommendations that there is at least moderate evidence available.

 

Differences in Recommendations

 

Recommendations about the prescription of analgesic medication remain fairly consistent. Most guidelines recommend paracetamol as the first option and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory preparations as the second option. Further recommendations about other drugs like opioids, muscle relaxants and benzodiazepines and antidepressants vary quite considerably. Part of these variations might reflect the setting and custom in different countries. Since all the guidelines were issued within a relative short time frame, the availability of underlying evidence did not vary much.

 

The recommendations regarding spinal manipulation continue to show some variation. In some guidelines manipulation is recommended, or presented as a therapeutic option, usually for short-term benefit, but others do not recommend it. This holds true for acute as well as chronic low back pain. The reasons for these differences remain speculative. Probably the underlying evidence is not strong enough to result in similar recommendations regarding manipulation across all guidelines, leaving the committees some more room for interpretation, but also local or political reasons may be involved.

 

There is now relatively large consensus across the various guidelines that specific back exercises (as opposed to the advice to stay active, including for example walking, cycling) are not recommended for patients with acute low back pain. At the same time back exercises are recommended in chronic low back pain. Most guidelines do not recommend a particular type of exercises for chronic low back pain, but some state that they should be intense.

 

Recommendations in guidelines are based not only on scientific evidence but also on consensus and discussion in the guideline committees. Usually it is stated that consensus was based on group discussion, but the details of these discussions are seldom reported. It is also generally unclear which recommendations are based mainly on scientific evidence and which are based on (mainly) consensus.

 

There is little information on whether cost-effectiveness played an important role as a basis for the recommendation in a guideline. Of course, there are not yet many cost-effectiveness studies available [23], but it is not fully clear to what extent the published studies were used.

 

Most guidelines state that the prognosis of an episode of low back pain is good. This holds especially true for patients with acute episodes of low back pain. For patients presenting with a longer duration with low back pain or with recurrent low back pain the prognosis may be less favourable. More individualised and precise estimates of the prognosis of an episode of low back pain may be desirable in the future.

 

Few Changes in Management Recommendations Over Time

 

This update showed that overall the recommendations in the current guidelines regarding diagnosis and treatment of low back pain did not change substantially compared to the guidelines issued about a decade ago. This may well illustrate the lack of new evidence showing better results with new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches and/or new evidence showing the inefficacy of existing interventions. A less nihilistic view could be that already a decade ago the most valid recommendations for the management of low back pain were identified. Some may argue that this is indeed the case, and that much more effort should now be given to implementation of guidelines (see below).

 

Some recommendations did change over time. We now see diagnostic recommendations appearing concerning the value of MRI and CT scans (i.e. in relation to exclusion and further diagnosis of red flags and serious spinal disorders). However, these recommendations are not yet strong, possibly because there are not many diagnostic studies available evaluating the value of MRI in patients with low back pain. Also, the recommendations regarding the assessment of psychosocial risk factors for chronicity are more firm in the current guidelines than that a decade ago. This reflects the insight of the importance of these risk factors for the development of chronicity and future disability. At the same time we must conclude that we are not yet very successful in effective screening of the patients at risk and subsequent therapeutic management of them [24].

 

Most apparent changes regarding therapeutic interventions include the advice to continue work (despite having low back pain) and or return to work as soon as possible. There are now more recommendations of second line medications such as antidepressants, opioids, benzodiazepines and compound medications. But these recommendations are not consistent across countries, potentially because of weak underlying evidence. There are now also more firm recommendations in favour of exercise therapy in patients with subacute and chronic low back pain. The latter is partly due to the fact that currently more guidelines include recommendation for the management of chronic low back pain as compared to a decade ago. Finally, the reasons and options for referral within primary care and secondary care are now more explicitly presented. It appears that the global approach regarding the management of low back pain remained largely unchanged in the past decade, although some refinements have been suggested.

 

Implementation

 

The extent to which currently available guidelines are used and followed in the various countries remains largely unknown. A few studies evaluating various implementation strategies for low back pain guidelines show that changing clinical practice is not an easy task [25, 26]. The publication and dissemination of guidelines alone is usually not enough to change the behaviour of health care providers [27]. The development of effective implementation strategies in this area remains a challenge.

 

Future Developments in Research and Guideline Development

 

The present study was primary aimed at presenting an update of the current clinical guidelines for the management of low back pain in primary care. Clinical guidelines focused at secondary care settings, occupational care settings, or specific subgroups of patients with lumbosacral radicular syndrome were not considered. Separate studies need to be undertaken to present an overview for these settings.

 

We assessed various aspects of the guideline development in Table 3. A formal assessment of the quality, e.g. with the AGREE instrument was not included. This was the topic of a separate paper which concluded that the quality of the guidelines indeed has improved over time [7].

 

The development of future guidelines in this field may benefit from previous experiences, evidence-based reviews, and various (inter) national guidelines as presented in this overview. The previous review of clinical guidelines listed the following recommendations (slightly modified) for the development of future guidelines in this field. Similar to a recent review on the quality of guidelines [7], this review shows that the quality of guidelines has improved over time and some of the recommendations have been followed. This includes recommendations 1, 3, and 4 (see below). For others, there still is room for improvement Recommendation 2 is not consistently applied. Recommendations 5 and 6 have improved over time, but not all recommendations in the guidelines are directly linked to the underlying evidence, and the process of the consensus methods used is not well described. Finally, the implementation strategies and the time frame of future updates are not well presented.

 

 

Open Access

 

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

 

Footnotes

 

Based upon search of PEDro database April 29, 2009.

 

In conclusion,�low back pain is a prevalent medical complaint which affects million of people in the United States alone. Although it may seem difficult to diagnose low back pain because of its many possible causes, a chiropractor, or doctor of chiropractic, can properly diagnose the source of a patient’s low back pain to treat as well as prevent a variety of injuries and/or conditions associated with the musculoskeletal and nervous system. Chiropractic care utilizes spinal adjustments and manual manipulations, among other treatment methods, to carefully restore the original alignment of the spine, allowing the human body to naturally heal itself. The purpose of the article above is to present updated treatment guidelines fot the management of low back pain in a primary care setting.� Information referenced from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic as well as to spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .

 

Curated by Dr. Alex Jimenez

 

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Additional Topics: Back Pain

 

According to statistics, approximately 80% of people will experience symptoms of back pain at least once throughout their lifetimes. Back pain is a common complaint which can result due to a variety of injuries and/or conditions. Often times, the natural degeneration of the spine with age can cause back pain. Herniated discs occur when the soft, gel-like center of an intervertebral disc pushes through a tear in its surrounding, outer ring of cartilage, compressing and irritating the nerve roots. Disc herniations most commonly occur along the lower back, or lumbar spine, but they may also occur along the cervical spine, or neck. The impingement of the nerves found in the low back due to injury and/or an aggravated condition can lead to symptoms of sciatica.

 

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EXTRA IMPORTANT TOPIC: Migraine Pain Treatment

 

 

MORE TOPICS: EXTRA EXTRA: El Paso, Tx | Athletes

 

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12.�Airaksinen O, Brox JI, Cedraschi C, et al. European guidelines for the management of chronic non-specific low back pain.�Eur Spine J.�2006;15(2):S192�S300. doi: 10.1007/s00586-006-1072-1.[PMC free article][PubMed][Cross Ref]
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14.�Agence Nationale d�Accreditation et d�Evaluation en Sante (2000) Guidelines department, diagnosis and management of acute low back pain (<3�months) with or without sciatica & diagnosis, management and follow-up of patients with chronic low back pain, Paris.�www.anaes.fr�or�www.sante.fr
15.�Drug Committee of the German Medical Society (2007) Recommendations for treatment of low back pain [in German]. K�ln, Germany
16.�Negrini S, Giovannoni S, Minozzi S, et al. Diagnostic therapeutic flow-charts for low back pain patients: the Italian clinical guidelines.�Euro Medicophys.�2006;42(2):151�170.�[PubMed]
17.�National Health Committee (2004) National Advisory Committee on Health and Disability, Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation Insurance Corporation. New Zealand Acute Low back pain Guide. Wellington, New Zealand
18.�Laerum E, Storheim K, Brox JI. New clinical guidelines for low back pain.�Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen.�2007;127(20):2706.�[PubMed]
19.�Spain, the Spanish Back Pain Research Network (2005) Guia de practica clinica. Lumbalgia Inespecifica. Version espnola de la Guia de Practica Clinica del Programa Europeo COST B13
20.�The Dutch Institute for Healthcare Improvement (CBO) (2003) Clinical guideline for non-specific low back pain [in Dutch]
21.�Back pain (low) and sciatica.�www.cks.library.nhs.uk. Accessed Sept 2008
22.�Chou R, Qaseem A, Snow V, et al. Clinical Efficacy Assessment Subcommittee of the American College of Physicians American College of Physicians American Pain Society Low back pain Guidelines Panel Diagnosis and treatment of low back pain: a joint clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society.�Ann Intern Med.�2007;147(7):478�491.�[PubMed]
23.�Roer N, Goossens ME, Evers SM, Tulder MW. What is the most cost-effective treatment for patients with low back pain? A systematic review.�Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol.�2005;19(4):671�684. doi: 10.1016/j.berh.2005.03.007.�[PubMed][Cross Ref]
24.�Jellema P, Windt DA, Horst HE, Blankenstein AH, Bouter LM, Stalman WA. Why is a treatment aimed at psychosocial factors not effective in patients with (sub)acute low back pain?�Pain.�2005;118(3):350�359. doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2005.09.002.�[PubMed][Cross Ref]
25.�Bekkering GE, Tulder MW, Hendriks EJM, Koopmanschap MA, Knol DL, Bouter LM, Oostendorp RAB. Implementation of clinical guidelines on physical therapy for patients with low back pain: randomized trial comparing patient outcomes after a standard and active implementation strategy.�Phys Ther.�2005;85(6):544�555.�[PubMed]
26.�Engers AJ, Wensing M, Tulder MW, Timmermans A, Oostendorp RA, Koes BW, Grol R. Implementation of the Dutch low back pain guideline for general practitioners: a cluster randomized controlled trial.�Spine.�2005;30(6):595�600. doi: 10.1097/01.brs.0000155406.79479.3a.�[PubMed][Cross Ref]
27.�Becker A, Leonhardt C, Kochen MM, Keller S, Wegscheider K, Baum E, Donner-Banzhoff N, Pfingsten M, Hildebrandt J, Basler HD, Chenot JF. Effects of two guideline implementation strategies on patient outcomes in primary care: a cluster randomized controlled trial.�Spine.�2008;33(5):473�480. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181657e0d.�[PubMed][Cross Ref]
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Chiropractic Care For Lower Back Pain | El Paso, TX. | Video

Chiropractic Care For Lower Back Pain | El Paso, TX. | Video

David Garcia is a proud father and maintenance facility worker at the Region 19 Education Services Center in El Paso, TX. However, Mr. Garcia’s daily life is often affected by his chronic lower back pain. After experiencing worsening symptoms for approximately two years, David Garcia was recommended to seek chiropractic care with Dr. Alex Jimenez by his sister, a previous patient of Dr. Jimenez. Mr. Garcia has since experienced tremendous relief from his lower back pain and he is grateful to Dr. Alex Jimenez and his staff for providing him with education regarding his health issues as well as properly caring for his injuries and/or conditions. David Garcia recommends Dr. Alex Jimenez as the non surgical choice for lower back pain.

Chiropractic Care For Lower Back Pain

Low back pain is not a specific injury or condition but rather a symptoms which may be caused by a wide variety of underlying health issues, all of varying levels of severity. The majority of low back pain does not have a clear cause but is believed to be the result of non-serious musculoskeletal problems, including sprains or strains. Obesity, smoking, weight gain during pregnancy, stress, poor physical condition, poor posture and poor sleeping positions have also been attributed to develop low back pain.A full list of possible causes includes many less common conditions. Physical causes may include osteoarthritis, degeneration of the discs between the vertebrae or a spinal disc herniation, broken vertebra(e) (such as from osteoporosis) or, rarely, an infection or tumor of the spine.

chiropractic care in el paso tx.

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Chiropractic Clinic Extra: Non-Surgical Options

Pregnancy Low Back Pain: Chiropractic Can Help | El Paso, TX.

Pregnancy Low Back Pain: Chiropractic Can Help | El Paso, TX.

If you are pregnant and have back pain, you are not alone. An estimated 50 to 70 percent of women who are pregnant experience back pain, according to the American Pregnancy Association. While pregnancy and childbirth is one of the most incredible experiences a woman can have, it is also very hard on her body. There are many dramatic changes that take place during that 9 to 10 month of gestation so it is understandable that she is going to feel some aches and pains along the way.

There are a number of reasons why a pregnant woman may experience back pain including:

  • Natural changes to her body such as softening of ligaments and loosening of joints as her body prepares to give birth
  • A shift in her center of gravity as her girth increases.
  • Weight gain.
  • Position of the baby.
  • Her posture.
  • Stress, exhaustion, and worry.

Is Chiropractic Care Safe During Pregnancy?

Chiropractic care has long been held as a viable method for relieving back pain in pregnant women. Historically, midwives and other natural or alternative practitioners were the ones advocating its many benefits. This resulted in minimal data from clinical studies existing on the topic.

However, in the last decade or so, researchers have been looking closer at chiropractic and its many benefits. In one study of pregnant women and chiropractic, 94 percent of the participants experienced dramatic improvement in their pain in just 5 days.

Today many doctors and obstetricians are sending their pregnant patients to chiropractors to help them manage their back and joint pain. It is perfectly safe for both mother and baby � and both can benefit from it.

pregnancy low back pain el paso tx.

Benefits Of Chiropractic Care During Pregnancy

While chiropractic care during pregnancy can be used as a safe, non-invasive, and drug free method of pain relief, women may also enjoy other benefits which include:

  • A healthier, happier pregnancy.
  • Improved mood and less anxiety.
  • More mobility.
  • Decreased morning sickness and nausea.
  • Easier, faster labor and delivery.
  • Better flexibility.
  • In some cases, prevent cesarean delivery.
  • Improved sleep.
  • Faster recovery time.
  • Relief of pain in the back, joints, and neck.

By keeping the body in proper alignment, chiropractic care can help a woman have a healthier, happier pregnancy. She can enjoy the many benefits and experience less pain so that she can better focus on the joy of pregnancy and the wonder of bringing a new life into the world.

Why You Should Have Chiropractic Care During Pregnancy

Pregnancy brings about many changes in a woman�s body. Hormonal changes as well as physiological ones occur at rapid speeds as her body creates and maintains a perfect environment where her baby will develop and grow. These changes can cause the spine or joints to become misaligned. When this occurs, painful conditions can be created, including:

  • Increased curvature of the back.
  • Pelvic changes.
  • Protruding abdomen that puts pressure on the back.
  • Changes in posture.

Keeping the pelvis and lower back well balanced and aligned is integral to preventing lower back pain during pregnancy. What�s more, when the pelvis and spine are not in alignment, it can limit the amount of room the baby has in the womb. This condition is called intrauterine constraint. This can also inhibit the baby�s ability to get in an optimal position for delivery.

Keeping the body, including the spine, in proper alignment is vital to mobility, flexibility, and overall wellness of the body even when it is not pregnant. However, pregnancy puts specific stress on the body, creating certain needs that chiropractic care can meet. It is safe, it is effective, it is fast, and it works.

Chiropractic Clinic Extra: Stress Management Care & Treatments

Back Pain Treatment El Paso, TX | Video

Back Pain Treatment El Paso, TX | Video

Back Pain Treatment: Carlos Hermosillo is a small contractor in El Paso, Tx, who’s known Dr. Alex Jimenez for several years. As a result of the physical demands of his job, Mr. Hermosillo often experiences lower back pain and back pain symptoms which tremendously limit his ability to perform his normal physical activities, fortunately, Dr. Alex Jimenez provides him with the chiropractic care he regularly needs to return to work as soon as possible. After being involved in an accident, Carlos Hermosillo once again turned to chiropractic care for relief of his symptoms. Mr. Hermosillo highly recommends Dr. Alex Jimenez as the non surgical choice for back pain treatment.

Back pain can originate from the muscles, nerves, bones, joints or other structures in the spine. Internal structures such as the gallbladder, pancreas, aorta, and kidneys may also cause referred pain in the back. The management goals when treating back pain are to achieve maximal reduction in pain intensity as rapidly as possible, to restore the individual’s ability to function in everyday activities, to help the patient cope with residual pain, to assess for side-effects of therapy, and to facilitate the patient’s passage through the legal and socioeconomic impediments to recovery. For many, the goal is to keep the pain to a manageable level to progress with rehabilitation, which then can lead to long-term pain relief.

back pain treatment in el paso tx.Please Recommend Us: If you have enjoyed this video and/or we have helped you in any way please feel free to recommend us. Thank You & God Bless.

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Chiropractic Clinic Extra: Back Pain Care & Treatments

Lower Back Pain During Pregnancy Treatment El Paso, TX | Video

Lower Back Pain During Pregnancy Treatment El Paso, TX | Video

Truide Torres, office manager, first received chiropractic care with Dr. Alex Jimenez during her pregnancy for her lower back pain. Mrs. Torres experienced aggravating symptoms throughout the progression of her pregnancy, which led her to seek a natural treatment approach for her own health as well as that of her own baby. Once Truide Torres started chiropractic treatment with Dr. Alex Jimenez, she recovered her quality of life and was able to return to her original state of well-being. As an office manager, Truide Torres also receives regular chiropractic care for any lower back pain which may occur as a result of her job. Mrs. Truide expresses how important it is to continue her spinal maintenance and she highly recommends Dr. Alex Jimenez as the non-surgical choice for a variety of health issues.

Low back pain (LBP) is a frequent health issue involving the muscles, nerves, and bones of the spine. Pain may differ from a dull persistent pain to a sudden sharp sensation. Low back pain can be classified by length and severity (pain lasting less than 6 months), sub-chronic (6 to 12 months), or chronic (over 12 months). The status could be further categorized by the underlying cause as both bodily, non-mechanical, or referred pain. The symptoms of low back pain may generally improve in a couple weeks from the time they begin, however, some cases may require additional treatment. In the majority of episodes of lower back pain, a specific underlying cause isn’t identified or properly cared for, and healthcare professionals may attribute it to mechanical issues like joint or muscle strain.
pregnancy in el paso tx.

Prenatal Yoga Exercises For Low Back Pain

Back Clinic News Extra: Migraine Pain Treatment With Chiropractic

Damaris Foreman suffered from migraines for about 23 years. After receiving traditional treatment for her migraine pain without much improvement, she was finally recommended to seek migraine pain treatment with Dr. Alex Jimenez, a chiropractor in El Paso, TX. Damaris greatly benefitted from chiropractic care and she experienced a tremendous sense of relief following her first spinal adjustment and manual manipulation. Damaris Foreman was able to confront many of her misconceptions and she learned very much about her migraine pain. Damaris describes Dr. Alex Jimenez’s migraine pain treatment as one of the best treatment she’s received and she highly recommends chiropractic care as the best non-surgical choice for improving and managing her migraines.

A migraine can be identified as a primary headache disorder characterized by recurrent headaches characterized from moderate to severe in intensity. Typically, the headaches affect one half of the head, are pulsating in nature, and can last from two to 72 hours. Associated symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light, sound, or smell. The pain may be aggravated by physical activity. Up to one-third of people who suffer from migraines experience migraine with aura: typically a brief period of visual disturbance that signals that the headache will soon happen. An aura can occur with little or no headache pain following it.

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Psychology, Headache, Back Pain, Chronic Pain and Chiropractic in El Paso, TX

Psychology, Headache, Back Pain, Chronic Pain and Chiropractic in El Paso, TX

Everyone experiences pain from time to time. Pain is a physical feeling of discomfort caused by injury or illness. When you pull a muscle or cut your finger, for instance, a signal is sent through the nerve roots to the brain, signaling you that something is wrong in the body. Pain may be different for everyone and there are several ways of feeling and describing pain. After an injury or illness heals, the pain will subside, however, what happens if the pain continues even after you’ve healed?

 

Chronic pain is often defined as any pain which lasts more than 12 weeks. Chronic pain can range from mild to severe and it can be the result of previous injury or surgery, migraine and headache, arthritis, nerve damage, infection and fibromyalgia. Chronic pain can affect an individual’s emotional and mental disposition, making it more difficult to relieve the symptoms. Research studies have demonstrated that psychological interventions can assist the chronic pain recovery process. Several healthcare professionals, like a doctor of chiropractic, can provide chiropractic care together with psychological interventions to help restore the overall health and wellness of their patients. The purpose of the following article is to demonstrate the role of psychological interventions in the management of patients with chronic pain, including headache and back pain.

 

 

The Role of Psychological Interventions in the Management of Patients with Chronic Pain

 

Abstract

 

Chronic pain can be best understood from a biopsychosocial perspective through which pain is viewed as a complex, multifaceted experience emerging from the dynamic interplay of a patient�s physiological state, thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and sociocultural influences. A biopsychosocial perspective focuses on viewing chronic pain as an illness rather than disease, thus recognizing that it is a subjective experience and that treatment approaches are aimed at the management, rather than the cure, of chronic pain. Current psychological approaches to the management of chronic pain include interventions that aim to achieve increased self-management, behavioral change, and cognitive change rather than directly eliminate the locus of pain. Benefits of including psychological treatments in multidisciplinary approaches to the management of chronic pain include, but are not limited to, increased self-management of pain, improved pain-coping resources, reduced pain-related disability, and reduced emotional distress � improvements that are effected via a variety of effective self-regulatory, behavioral, and cognitive techniques. Through implementation of these changes, psychologists can effectively help patients feel more in command of their pain control and enable them to live as normal a life as possible despite pain. Moreover, the skills learned through psychological interventions empower and enable patients to become active participants in the management of their illness and instill valuable skills that patients can employ throughout their lives.

 

Keywords: chronic pain management, psychology, multidisciplinary pain treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy for pain

 

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Dr. Alex Jimenez’s Insight

Chronic pain has previously been determined to affect the psychological health of those with persistent symptoms, ultimately altering their overall mental and emotional disposition. In addition, patients with overlapping conditions, including stress, anxiety and depression, can make treatment a challenge. The role of chiropractic care is to restore as well as maintain and improve the original alignment of the spine through the use of spinal adjustments and manual manipulations. Chiropractic care allows the body to naturally heal itself without the need for drugs/medications and surgical interventions, although these can be referred to by a chiropractor if needed. However, chiropractic care focuses on the body as a whole, rather than on a single injury and/or condition and its symptoms. Spinal adjustments and manual manipulations, among other treatment methods and techniques commonly used by a chiropractor, require awareness of the patient’s mental and emotional disposition in order to effectively provide them with overall health and wellness. Patients who visit my clinic with emotional distress from their chronic pain are often more susceptible to experience psychological issues as a result. Therefore, chiropractic care can be a fundamental psychological intervention for chronic pain management, along with those demonstrated below.

 

Introduction

 

Pain is a ubiquitous human experience. It is estimated that approximately 20%�35% of adults experience chronic pain.[1,2] The National Institute of Nursing Research reports that pain affects more Americans than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined.[3] Pain has been cited as the primary reason to seek medical care in the United States.[4] Furthermore, pain relievers are the second most commonly prescribed medications in physicians� offices and emergency rooms.[5] Further solidifying the importance of adequate assessment of pain, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations issued a mandate requiring that pain be evaluated as the fifth vital sign during medical visits.[6]

 

The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as �an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage�.[7] The IASP�s definition highlights the multidimensional and subjective nature of pain, a complex experience that is unique to each individual. Chronic pain is typically differentiated from acute pain based on its chronicity or persistence, its physiological maintenance mechanisms, and/or its detrimental impact on an individual�s life. Generally, it is accepted that pain that persists beyond the expected period of time for tissue healing following an injury or surgery is considered chronic pain. However, the specific timeframe constituting an expected healing period is variable and often difficult to ascertain. For ease of classification, certain guidelines suggest that pain persisting beyond a 3�6 month time window is considered chronic pain.[7] Nevertheless, classification of pain based solely on duration is a strictly practical and, in some instances, arbitrary criterion. More commonly, additional factors such as etiology, pain intensity, and impact are considered alongside duration when classifying chronic pain. An alternative way to characterize chronic pain has been based on its physiological maintenance mechanism; that is, pain that is thought to emerge as a result of peripheral and central reorganization. Common chronic pain conditions include musculoskeletal disorders, neuropathic pain conditions, headache pain, cancer pain, and visceral pain. More broadly, pain conditions may be primarily nociceptive (producing mechanical or chemical pain), neuropathic (resulting from nerve damage), or central (resulting from dysfunction in the neurons of the central nervous system).[8]

 

Unfortunately, the experience of pain is frequently characterized by undue physical, psychological, social, and financial suffering. Chronic pain has been recognized as the leading cause of long-term disability in the working- age American population.[9] Because chronic pain affects the individual at multiple domains of his/her existence it also constitutes an enormous financial burden to our society. The combined direct and indirect costs of pain have been estimated to range from $125 billion to $215 billion, annually.[10,11] The widespread implications of chronic pain include increased reports of emotional distress (eg, depression, anxiety, and frustration), increased rates of pain-related disability, pain-related alterations in cognition, and reduced quality of life. Thus, chronic pain can be best understood from a biopsychosocial perspective through which pain is viewed as a complex, multifaceted experience emerging from the dynamic interplay of a patient�s physiological state, thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and sociocultural influences.

 

Pain Management

 

Given the widespread prevalence of pain and its multi-dimensional nature, an ideal pain management regimen will be comprehensive, integrative, and interdisciplinary. Current approaches to the management of chronic pain have increasingly transcended the reductionist and strictly surgical, physical, or pharmacological approach to treatment. Current approaches recognize the value of a multidisciplinary treatment framework that targets not only nociceptive aspects of pain but also cognitive-evaluative, and motivational-affective aspects alongside equally unpleasant and impacting sequelae. The interdisciplinary management of chronic pain typically includes multimodal treatments such as combinations of analgesics, physical therapy, behavioral therapy, and psychological therapy. The multimodal approach more adequately and comprehensively addresses pain management at the molecular, behavioral, cognitive-affective, and functional levels. These approaches have been shown to lead to superior and long-lasting subjective and objective outcomes including pain reports, mood, restoration of daily functioning, work status, and medication or health care use; multimodal approaches have also been shown to be more cost-effective than unimodal approaches.[12,13] The focus of this review will be specifically on elucidating the benefits of psychology in the management of chronic pain.

 

Dr. Jimenez performing physical therapy on a patient.

 

Patients will typically initially present to a physician�s office in the pursuit of a cure or treatment for their ailment/acute pain. For many patients, depending on the etiology and pathology of their pain alongside biopsychosocial influences on the pain experience, acute pain will resolve with the passage of time, or following treatments aimed at targeting the presumed cause of pain or its transmission. Nonetheless, some patients will not achieve resolution of their pain despite numerous medical and complementary interventions and will transition from an acute pain state to a state of chronic, intractable pain. For instance, research has demonstrated that approximately 30% of patients presenting to their primary-care physician for complaints related to acute back pain will continue to experience pain and, for many others, severe activity limitations and suffering 12 months later.[14] As pain and its consequences continue to develop and manifest in diverse aspects of life, chronic pain may become primarily a biopsychosocial problem, whereby numerous biopsychosocial aspects may serve to perpetuate and maintain pain, thus continuing to negatively impact the affected individual�s life. It is at this point that the original treatment regimen may diversify to include other therapeutic components, including psychological approaches to pain management.

 

Psychological approaches for the management of chronic pain initially gained popularity in the late 1960s with the emergence of Melzack and Wall�s �gate-control theory of pain�[15] and the subsequent �neuromatrix theory of pain�.[16] Briefly, these theories posit that psychosocial and physiological processes interact to affect perception, transmission, and evaluation of pain, and recognize the influence of these processes as maintenance factors involved in the states of chronic or prolonged pain. Namely, these theories served as integral catalysts for instituting change in the dominant and unimodal approach to the treatment of pain, one heavily dominated by strictly biological perspectives. Clinicians and patients alike gained an increasing recognition and appreciation for the complexity of pain processing and maintenance; consequently, the acceptance of and preference for multidimensional conceptualizations of pain were established. Currently, the biopsychosocial model of pain is, perhaps, the most widely accepted heuristic approach to understanding pain.[17] A biopsychosocial perspective focuses on viewing chronic pain as an illness rather than disease, thus recognizing that it is a subjective experience and that treatment approaches are aimed at the management, rather than the cure, of chronic pain.[17] As the utility of a broader and more comprehensive approach to the management of chronic pain has become evident, psychologically-based interventions have witnessed a remarkable rise in popularity and recognition as adjunct treatments. The types of psychological interventions employed as part of a multidisciplinary pain treatment program vary according to therapist orientation, pain etiology, and patient characteristics. Likewise, research on the effectiveness of psychologically based interventions for chronic pain has shown variable, albeit promising, results on key variables studied. This overview will briefly describe frequently employed psychologically based treatment options and their respective effectiveness on key outcomes.

 

Current psychological approaches to the management of chronic pain include interventions that aim to achieve increased self-management, behavioral change, and cognitive change rather than directly eliminate the locus of pain. As such, they target the frequently overlooked behavioral, emotional, and cognitive components of chronic pain and factors contributing to its maintenance. Informed by the framework offered by Hoffman et al[18] and Kerns et al,[19] the following frequently employed psychologically-based treatment domains are reviewed: psychophysiological techniques, behavioral approaches to treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, and acceptance-based interventions.

 

Psychophysiological Techniques

 

Biofeedback

 

Biofeedback is a learning technique through which patients learn to interpret feedback (in the form of physiological data) regarding certain physiological functions. For instance, a patient may use biofeedback equipment to learn to recognize areas of tension in their body and subsequently learn to relax those areas to reduce muscular tension. Feedback is provided by a variety of measurement instruments that can yield information about brain electrical activity, blood pressure, blood flow, muscle tone, electrodermal activity, heart rate, and skin temperature, among other physiological functions in a rapid manner. The goal of biofeedback approaches is for the patient to learn how to initiate physiological self-regulatory processes by achieving voluntary control over certain physiological responses to ultimately increase physiological flexibility through greater awareness and specific training. Thus a patient will use specific self-regulatory skills in an attempt to reduce an undesired event (eg, pain) or maladaptive physiological reactions to an undesired event (eg, stress response). Many psychologists are trained in biofeedback techniques and provide these services as part of therapy. Biofeedback has been designated as an efficacious treatment for pain associated with headache and temporomandibular disorders (TMD).[20] A meta-analysis of 55 studies revealed that biofeedback interventions (including various biofeedback modalities) yielded significant improvements with regard to frequency of migraine attacks and perceptions of headache management self-efficacy when compared to control conditions.[21] Studies have provided empirical support for biofeedback for TMD, albeit more robust improvements with regard to pain and pain-related disability have been found for protocols that combine biofeedback with cognitive behavioral skills training, under the assumption that a combined treatment approach more comprehensively addresses the gamut of biopsychosocial problems that may be encountered as a result of TMD.[22]

 

Behavioral Approaches

 

Relaxation Training

 

It is generally accepted that stress is a key factor involved in the exacerbation and maintenance of chronic pain.[16,23] Stress can be predominantly of an environmental, physical, or psychological/emotional basis, though typically these mechanisms are intricately intertwined. The focus of relaxation training is to reduce tension levels (physical and mental) through activation of the parasympathetic nervous system and through attainment of greater awareness of physiological and psychological states, thereby achieving reductions in pain and increasing control over pain. Patients can be taught several relaxation techniques and practice them individually or in conjunction with one another, as well as adjuvant components to other behavioral and cognitive pain management techniques. The following are brief descriptions of relaxation techniques commonly taught by psychologists specializing in the management of chronic pain.

 

Diaphragmatic breathing. Diaphragmatic breathing is a basic relaxation technique whereby patients are instructed to use the muscles of their diaphragm as opposed to the muscles of their chest to engage in deep breathing exercises. Breathing by contracting the diaphragm allows the lungs to expand down (marked by expansion of abdomen during inhalation) and thus increase oxygen intake.[24]

 

Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). PMR is characterized by engaging in a combination of muscle tension and relaxation exercises of specific muscles or muscle groups throughout the body.[25] The patient is typically instructed to engage in the tension/relaxation exercises in a sequential manner until all areas of the body have been addressed.

 

Autogenic training (AT). AT is a self-regulatory relaxation technique in which a patient repeats a phrase in conjunction with visualization to induce a state of relaxation.[26,27] This method combines passive concentration, visualization, and deep breathing techniques.

 

Visualization/Guided imagery. This technique encourages patients to use all of their senses in imagining a vivid, serene, and safe environment to achieve a sense of relaxation and distraction from their pain and pain-related thoughts and sensations.[27]

 

Collectively, relaxation techniques have generally been found to be beneficial in the management of a variety of types of acute and chronic pain conditions as well as in the management of important pain sequelae (eg, health-related quality of life).[28�31] Relaxation techniques are usually practiced in conjunction with other pain management modalities, and there is considerable overlap in the presumed mechanisms of relaxation and biofeedback, for instance.

 

Operant Behavior Therapy

 

Operant behavior therapy for chronic pain is guided by the original operant conditioning principles proposed by Skinner[32] and refined by Fordyce[33] to be applicable to pain management. The main tenets of the operant conditioning model as it relates to pain hold that pain behavior can eventually evolve into and be maintained as chronic pain manifestations as a result of positive or negative reinforcement of a given pain behavior as well as punishment of more adaptive, non-pain behavior. If reinforcement and the ensuing consequences occur with sufficient frequency, they can serve to condition the behavior, thus increasing the likelihood of repeating the behavior in the future. Therefore, conditioned behaviors occur as a product of learning of the consequences (actual or anticipated) of engaging in the given behavior. An example of a conditioned behavior is continued use of medication � a behavior that results from learning through repeated associations that taking medication is followed by removal of an aversive sensation (pain). Likewise, pain behaviors (eg, verbal expressions of pain, low activity levels) can be become conditioned behaviors that serve to perpetuate chronic pain and its sequelae. Treatments that are guided by operant behavior principles aim to extinguish maladaptive pain behaviors through the same learning principles that these may have been established by. In general, treatment components of operant behavior therapy include graded activation, time contingent medication schedules, and use of reinforcement principles to increase well behaviors and decrease maladaptive pain behaviors.

 

Graded activation. Psychologists can implement graded activity programs for chronic pain patients who have vastly reduced their activity levels (increasing likelihood of physical deconditioning) and subsequently experience high levels of pain upon engaging in activity. Patients are instructed to safely break the cycle of inactivity and deconditioning by engaging in activity in a controlled and time-limited fashion. In this manner, patients can gradually increase the length of time and intensity of activity to improve functioning. Psychologists can oversee progress and provide appropriate reinforcement for compliance, correction of misperceptions or misinterpretations of pain resulting from activity, where appropriate, and problem-solve barriers to adherence. This approach is frequently embedded within cognitive-behavioral pain management treatments.

 

Time-contingent medication schedules. A psychologist can be an important adjunct healthcare provider in overseeing the management of pain medications. In some cases, psychologists have the opportunity for more frequent and in-depth contact with patients than physicians and thus can serve as valuable collaborators of an integrated multidisciplinary treatment approach. Psychologists can institute time-contingent medication schedules to reduce the likelihood of dependence on pain medications for attaining adequate control over pain. Furthermore, psychologists are well equipped to engage patients in important conversations regarding the importance of proper adherence to medications and medical recommendations and problem-solve perceived barriers to safe adherence.

 

Fear-avoidance. The fear-avoidance model of chronic pain is a heuristic most frequently applied in the context of chronic low back pain (LBP).[34] This model draws largely from the operant behavior principles described previously. In essence, the fear-avoidance model posits that when acute pain states are repeatedly misinterpreted as danger signals or signs of serious injury, patients may be at risk of engaging in fear-driven avoidance behaviors and cognitions that further reinforce the belief that pain is a danger signal and perpetuate physical deconditioning. As the cycle continues, avoidance may generalize to broader types of activity and result in hypervigilance of physical sensations characterized by misinformed catastrophic interpretations of physical sensations. Research has shown that a high degree of pain catastrophizing is associated with maintenance of the cycle.[35] Treatments aimed at breaking the fear-avoidance cycle employ systematic graded exposure to feared activities to disconfirm the feared, often catastrophic, consequences of engaging in activities. Graded exposure is typically supplemented with psychoeducation about pain and cognitive restructuring elements that target maladaptive cognitions and expectations about activity and pain. Psychologists are in an excellent position to execute these types of interventions that closely mimic exposure treatments traditionally used in the treatment of some anxiety disorders.

 

Though specific graded exposure treatments have been shown to be effective in the treatment of complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS-1)[36] and LBP[37] in single-case designs, a larger-scale randomized controlled trial comparing systematic graded exposure treatment combined with multidisciplinary pain program treatment with multidisciplinary pain program treatment alone and with a wait-list control group found that the two active treatments resulted in significant improvements on outcome measures of pain intensity, fear of movement/injury, pain self-efficacy, depression, and activity level.[38] Results from this trial suggest that both interventions were associated with significant treatment effectiveness such that the graded exposure treatment did not appear to result in additional treatment gains.[38] A cautionary note in the interpretation of these results highlights that the randomized controlled trial (RCT) included a variety of chronic pain conditions that extended beyond LBP and CRPS-1 and did not exclusively include patients with high levels of pain-related fear; the interventions were also delivered in group formats rather than individual formats. Although in-vivo exposure treatments are superior at reducing pain catastrophizing and perceptions of harmfulness of activities, exposure treatments seem to be as effective as graded activity interventions in improving functional disability and chief complaints.[39] Another clinical trial compared the effectiveness of treatment-based classification (TBC) physical therapy alone to TBC augmented with graded activity or graded exposure for patients with acute and sub-acute LBP.[40] Outcomes revealed that there were no differences in 4-week and 6-month outcomes for reduction of disability, pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, and physical impairment among treatment groups, although graded exposure and TBC yielded larger reductions in fear-avoidance beliefs at 6 months.[40] Findings from this clinical trial suggest that enhancing TBC with graded activity or graded exposure does not lead to improved outcomes with regard to measures associated with the development of chronic LBP beyond improvements achieved with TBC alone.[40]

 

Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches

 

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions for chronic pain utilize psychological principles to effect adaptive changes in the patient�s behaviors, cognitions or evaluations, and emotions. These interventions are generally comprised of basic psychoeducation about pain and the patient�s particular pain syndrome, several behavioral components, coping skills training, problem-solving approaches, and a cognitive restructuring component, though the exact treatment components vary according to the clinician. Behavioral components may include a variety of relaxation skills (as reviewed in the behavioral approaches section), activity pacing instructions/graded activation, behavioral activation strategies, and promotion of resumption of physical activity if there is a significant history of activity avoidance and subsequent deconditioning. The primary aim in coping skills training is to identify current maladaptive coping strategies (eg, catastrophizing, avoidance) that the patient is engaging in alongside their use of adaptive coping strategies (eg, use of positive self-statements, social support). As a cautionary note, the degree to which a strategy is adaptive or maladaptive and the perceived effectiveness of particular coping strategies varies from individual to individual.[41] Throughout treatment, problem-solving techniques are honed to aid patients in their adherence efforts and to help them increase their self-efficacy. Cognitive restructuring entails recognition of current maladaptive cognitions the patient is engaging in, challenging of the identified negative cognitions, and reformulation of thoughts to generate balanced, adaptive alternative thoughts. Through cognitive restructuring exercises, patients become increasingly adept at recognizing how their emotions, cognitions, and interpretations modulate their pain in positive and negative directions. As a result, it is presumed that the patients will attain a greater perception of control over their pain, be better able to manage their behavior and thoughts as they relate to pain, and be able to more adaptively evaluate the meaning they ascribe to their pain. Additional components sometimes included in a CBT intervention include social skills training, communication training, and broader approaches to stress management. Via a pain-oriented CBT intervention, many patients profit from improvements with regard to their emotional and functional well-being, and ultimately their global perceived health-related quality of life.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez engaging in fitness exercise and physical activity.

 

CBT interventions are delivered within a supportive and empathetic environment that strives to understand the patient�s pain from a biopsychosocial perspective and in an integrated manner. Therapists see their role as �teachers� or �coaches� and the message communicated to patients is that of learning to better manage their pain and improve their daily function and quality of life as opposed to aiming to cure or eradicate the pain. The overarching goal is to increase the patients� understanding of their pain and their efforts to manage pain and its sequelae in a safe and adaptive manner; therefore, teaching patients to self-monitor their behavior, thoughts, and emotions is an integral component of therapy and a useful strategy to enhance self-efficacy. Additionally, the therapist endeavors to foster an optimistic, realistic, and encouraging environment in which the patient can become increasingly skilled at recognizing and learning from their successes and learning from and improving upon unsuccessful attempts. In this manner, therapists and patients work together to identify patient successes, barriers to adherence, and to develop maintenance and relapse-prevention plans in a constructive, collaborative, and trustworthy atmosphere. An appealing feature of the cognitive behavioral approach is its endorsement of the patient as an active participant of his/her pain rehabilitation or management program.

 

Research has found CBT to be an effective treatment for chronic pain and its sequelae as marked by significant changes in various domains (ie, measures of pain experience, mood/affect, cognitive coping and appraisal, pain behavior and activity level, and social role function) when compared with wait-list control conditions.[42] When compared with other active treatments or control conditions, CBT has resulted in notable improvements, albeit smaller effects (effect size ~ 0.50), with regard to pain experience, cognitive coping and appraisal, and social role function.[42] A more recent meta-analysis of 52 published studies compared behavior therapy (BT) and CBT against treatment as usual control conditions and active control conditions at various time-points.[43] This meta-analysis concluded that their data did not lend support for BT beyond improvements in pain immediately following treatment when compared with treatment as usual control conditions.[43] With regard to CBT, they concluded that CBT has limited positive effects for pain disability, and mood; nonetheless, there are insufficient data available to investigate the specific influence of treatment content on selected outcomes.[43] Overall, it appears that CBT and BT are effective treatment approaches to improve mood; outcomes that remain robust at follow-up data points. However, as highlighted by several reviews and meta-analyses, a critical factor to consider in evaluating the effectiveness of CBT for the management of chronic pain is centered on issues of effective delivery, lack of uniform treatment components, differences in delivery across clinicians and treatment populations, and variability in outcome variables of interest across research trials.[13] Further complicating the interpretation of effectiveness findings are patient characteristics and additional variables that may independently affect treatment outcome.

 

Acceptance-Based Approaches

 

Acceptance-based approaches are frequently identified as third-wave cognitive-behavioral therapies. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is the most common of the acceptance-based psychotherapies. ACT emphasizes the importance of facilitating the client�s progress toward attaining a more valued and fulfilling life by increasing psychological flexibility rather than strictly focusing on restructuring cognitions.[44] In the context of chronic pain, ACT targets ineffective control strategies and experiential avoidance by fostering techniques that establish psychological flexibility. The six core processes of ACT include: acceptance, cognitive defusion, being present, self as context, values, and committed action.[45] Briefly, acceptance encourages chronic pain patients to actively embrace pain and its sequelae rather than attempt to change it, in doing so encouraging the patient to cease a futile fight directed at the eradication of their pain. Cognitive defusion (deliteralization) techniques are employed to modify the function of thoughts rather than to reduce their frequency or restructure their content. In this manner, cognitive defusion may simply alter the undesirable meaning or function of negative thoughts and thus decrease the attachment and subsequent emotional and behavioral response to such thoughts. The core process of being present emphasizes a non-judgmental interaction between the self and private thoughts and events. Values are utilized as guides for electing behaviors and interpretations that are characterized by those values an individual strives to instantiate in everyday life. Finally, through committed action, patients can realize behavior changes aligned with individual values. Thus, ACT utilizes the six core principles in conjunction with one another to take a holistic approach toward increasing psychological flexibility and decreasing suffering. Patients are encouraged to view pain as inevitable and accept it in a nonjudgmental manner so that they can continue to derive meaning from life despite the presence of pain. The interrelated core processes exemplify mindfulness and acceptance processes and commitment and behavior change processes.[45]

 

Results of research on the effectiveness of ACT-based approaches for the management of chronic pain are promising, albeit still warranting further evaluation. A RCT comparing ACT with a waitlist control condition reported significant improvements in pain catastrophizing, pain-related disability, life satisfaction, fear of movements, and psychological distress that were maintained at the 7 month follow-up.[46] A larger trial reported significant improvements for pain, depression, pain-related anxiety, disability, medical visits, work status, and physical performance.[47] A recent meta-analysis evaluating acceptance-based interventions (ACT and mindfulness-based stress reduction) in patients with chronic pain found that, in general, acceptance-based therapies lead to favorable outcomes for patients with chronic pain.[48] Specifically, the meta-analysis revealed small to medium effect sizes for pain intensity, depression, anxiety, physical wellbeing, and quality of life, with smaller effects found when controlled clinical trials were excluded and only RCTs were included in the analyses.[48] Other acceptance-based interventions include contextual cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, though empirical research on the effectiveness of these therapies for the management of chronic pain is still in its infancy.

 

Expectations

 

An important and vastly overlooked common underlying element of all treatment approaches is consideration of the patient�s expectation for treatment success. Despite the numerous advances in the formulation and delivery of effective multidisciplinary treatments for chronic pain, relatively little emphasis has been placed on recognizing the importance of expectations for success and on focusing efforts on enhancement of patients� expectations. The recognition that placebo for pain is characterized by active properties leading to reliable, observable, and quantifiable changes with neurobiological underpinnings is currently at the vanguard of pain research. Numerous studies have confirmed that, when induced in a manner that optimizes expectations (via manipulation of explicit expectations and/or conditioning), analgesic placebos can result in observable and measurable changes in pain perception at a conscious self-reported level as well as a neurological pain-processing level.[49,50] Analgesic placebos have been broadly defined as simulated treatments or procedures that occur within a psychosocial context and exert effects on an individual�s experience and/or physiology.[51] The current conceptualization of placebo emphasizes the importance of the psychosocial context within which placebos are embedded. Underlying the psychosocial context and ritual of treatment are patients� expectations. Therefore, it is not surprising that the placebo effect is intricately embedded in virtually every treatment; as such, clinicians and patients alike will likely benefit from recognition that therein lies an additional avenue by which current treatment approaches to pain can be enhanced.

 

It has been proposed that outcome expectancies are core influences driving the positive changes attained through the various modes of relaxation training, hypnosis, exposure treatments, and many cognitive-oriented therapeutic approaches. Thus, a sensible approach to the management of chronic pain capitalizes on the power of patients� expectations for success. Regrettably, too often, health care providers neglect to directly address and emphasize the importance of patients� expectations as integral factors contributing to successful management of chronic pain. The zeitgeist in our society is that of mounting medicalization of ailments fueling the general expectation that pain (even chronic pain) ought to be eradicated through medical advancements. These all too commonly held expectations leave many patients disillusioned with current treatment outcomes and contribute to an incessant search for the �cure�. Finding the �cure� is the exception rather than the rule with respect to chronic pain conditions. In our current climate, where chronic pain afflicts millions of Americans annually, it is in our best interest to instill and continue to advocate a conceptual shift that instead focuses on effective management of chronic pain. A viable and promising route to achieving this is to make the most of patients� positive (realistic) expectations and educate pain patients as well as the lay public (20% of whom will at some future point become pain patients) on what constitutes realistic expectations regarding the management of pain. Perhaps, this can occur initially through current, evidence-based education regarding placebo and nonspecific treatment effects such that patients can correct misinformed beliefs they may have previously held. Subsequently clinicians can aim to enhance patients� expectations within treatment contexts (in a realistic fashion) and minimize pessimistic expectations that deter from treatment success, therefore, learning to enhance their current multidisciplinary treatments through efforts guided at capitalizing on the improvements placebo can yield, even within an �active treatment�. Psychologists can readily address these issues with their patients and help them become advocates of their own treatment success.

 

Emotional Concomitants of Pain

 

An often challenging aspect of the management of chronic pain is the unequivocally high prevalence of comorbid emotional distress. Research has demonstrated that depression and anxiety disorders are upward to three times more prevalent among chronic pain patients than among the general population.[52,53] Frequently, pain patients with psychiatric comorbidities are labeled �difficult patients� by healthcare providers, possibly diminishing the quality of care they will receive. Patients with depression have poorer outcomes for both depression and pain treatments, compared with patients with single diagnoses of pain or depression.[54,55] Psychologists are remarkably suited to address most of the psychiatric comorbidities typically encountered in chronic pain populations and thus improve pain treatment outcomes and decrease the emotional suffering of patients. Psychologists can address key symptoms (eg, anhedonia, low motivation, problem-solving barriers) of depression that readily interfere with treatment participation and emotional distress. Moreover, irrespective of a psychiatric comorbidity, psychologists can help chronic pain patients process important role transitions they may undergo (eg, loss of job, disability), interpersonal difficulties they may be encountering (eg, sense of isolation brought about by pain), and emotional suffering (eg, anxiety, anger, sadness, disappointment) implicated in their experience. Thus, psychologists can positively impact the treatment course by reducing the influence of emotional concomitants that are addressed as part of therapy.

 

Conclusion

 

Benefits of including psychological treatments in multidisciplinary approaches to the management of chronic pain are abundant. These include, but are not limited to, increased self-management of pain, improved pain-coping resources, reduced pain-related disability, and reduced emotional distress-improvements that are effected via a variety of effective self-regulatory, behavioral, and cognitive techniques. Through implementation of these changes, a psychologist can effectively help patients feel more in command of their pain control and enable them to live as normal a life as possible despite pain. Moreover, the skills learned through psychological interventions empower and enable patients to become active participants in the management of their illness and instill valuable skills that patients can employ throughout their lives. Additional benefits of an integrated and holistic approach to the management of chronic pain may include increased rates of return to work, reductions in health care costs, and increased health-related quality of life for millions of patients throughout the world.

 

Image of a trainer providing training advice to a patient.

 

Footnotes

 

Disclosure: No conflicts of interest were declared in relation to this paper.

 

In conclusion, psychological interventions can be effectively used to help relieve symptoms of chronic pain along with the use of other treatment modalities, such as chiropractic care. Furthermore, the research study above demonstrated how specific psychological interventions can improve the outcome measures of chronic pain management. Information referenced from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic as well as to spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .

 

Curated by Dr. Alex Jimenez

 

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Additional Topics: Back Pain

 

According to statistics, approximately 80% of people will experience symptoms of back pain at least once throughout their lifetimes. Back pain is a common complaint which can result due to a variety of injuries and/or conditions. Often times, the natural degeneration of the spine with age can cause back pain. Herniated discs occur when the soft, gel-like center of an intervertebral disc pushes through a tear in its surrounding, outer ring of cartilage, compressing and irritating the nerve roots. Disc herniations most commonly occur along the lower back, or lumbar spine, but they may also occur along the cervical spine, or neck. The impingement of the nerves found in the low back due to injury and/or an aggravated condition can lead to symptoms of sciatica.

 

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EXTRA IMPORTANT TOPIC: Managing Workplace Stress

 

 

MORE IMPORTANT TOPICS: EXTRA EXTRA: Car Accident Injury Treatment El Paso, TX Chiropractor

 

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Psychological Therapy for Chronic Pain Management in El Paso, TX

Psychological Therapy for Chronic Pain Management in El Paso, TX

Psychological therapy, also known as psychotherapy, refers to the use of psychological methods to help change an individual’s way of thinking as well as improve their coping skills in order for them to learn how to best deal with stress. Psychological therapies have widely been utilized as a part of the multidisciplinary management of chronic pain. Common psychotherapies include, cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction and even chiropractic care. The connection between the mind and the body in relation to disease and illness have long been discussed in many research studies.

 

Evidence-based research studies have demonstrated that proper stress management through the use of psychological therapy as well as mindfulness interventions can effectively benefit patients with chronic pain. By way of instance, chiropractic care can safely and effectively help reduce stress, anxiety and depression by correcting spinal misalignments, or subluxation. A balanced spine can improve mood and mental health. Chiropractic care can include lifestyle modifications, such as nutritional advice, physical activity and exercise recommendations, and promote better sleeping habits, to further enhance the benefits of the treatment. The purpose of the following article is to demonstrate how psychological therapies impact the management of chronic pain.

 

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Psychological Therapies for the Management of Chronic Pain

 

Abstract

 

Pain is a complex stressor that presents a significant challenge to most aspects of functioning and contributes to substantial physical, psychological, occupational, and financial cost, particularly in its chronic form. As medical intervention frequently cannot resolve pain completely, there is a need for management approaches to chronic pain, including psychological intervention. Psychotherapy for chronic pain primarily targets improvements in physical, emotional, social, and occupational functioning rather than focusing on resolution of pain itself. However, psychological therapies for chronic pain differ in their scope, duration, and goals, and thus show distinct patterns of treatment efficacy. These therapies fall into four categories: operant-behavioral therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy. The current article explores the theoretical distinctiveness, therapeutic targets, and effectiveness of these approaches as well as mechanisms and individual differences that factor into treatment response and pain-related dysfunction and distress. Implications for future research, dissemination of treatment, and the integration of psychological principles with other treatment modalities are also discussed.

 

Keywords: pain management, multidisciplinary pain treatment, psychological therapy

 

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Dr. Alex Jimenez’s Insight

Chiropractic care is an alternative treatment option which utilizes spinal adjustments and manual manipulations to treat injuries and/or conditions associated with the musculoskeletal and nervous system. Chiropractic treatment primarily focuses on spinal health, however, because the spine is the root of the nervous system, chiropractic care can also be effectively used to treat a variety of mental health issues. As a chiropractor, I make sure to focus on the body as a whole, rather than treating the symptoms of a single injury and/or condition. The truth of the matter is, chiropractic treatment must also deal with the emotional component of each health issue in order to provide overall relief. Psychosomatic disorders, refers to a physical illness caused or aggravated by a mental factor, such as stress. Chiropractic care can be utilized as a psychological therapy, in which, a chiropractor may recommend a series of lifestyle modifications to help reduce stress, anxiety and depression, together with spinal adjustments and manual manipulations to reduce symptoms associated with mental health issues. Furthermore, the understanding of the connection between the mind and body is essential in chiropractic treatment towards overall health and wellness.

 

Introduction to the Non-Pharmacological Treatment of Pain

 

Pain is an essential biological function that signals disturbance or damage in the body, prevents further harm through overuse of the afflicted area, and promotes physiological homeostasis.[1] Whether through abnormal healing, additional bodily damage, or failed medical intervention, pain may become chronic. Chronic pain no longer signals damage to the body and is instead a detriment to the physical and psychological well-being of the sufferer. Unfortunately, medical intervention frequently cannot resolve chronic pain, resulting in increased need for management approaches to pain, as is the approach to other chronic medical conditions.[2] In recent years, the biopsychosocial model has informed research and intervention in pain psychology, wherein physical, cognitive, affective, and interpersonal factors are used to inform treatment.[2] Currently, psychological interventions for chronic pain target a variety of domains, including physical functioning, pain medication use, mood, cognitive patterns, and quality of life, while changes in pain intensity may be secondary.[3] As such, psychological interventions for pain are ideally suited as complementary treatments to medical treatment.[4] In order to articulate the distinct philosophies and effects of each psychological intervention, it is important to first consider the variety of ways that pain affects psychological functioning.

 

Psychological Reactions to Pain

 

Recurrent pain may contribute to development of maladaptive cognitions and behavior that worsen daily functioning, increase psychiatric distress, or prolong the experience of pain.[5] Individuals suffering from chronic pain tend to show increased vulnerability to a variety of psychiatric conditions, including depressive disorders,[6] anxiety disorders,[7] and posttraumatic stress disorder.[7] However, the relationship between depression and pain is likely bidirectional, as the presence of a major depressive disorder has been identified as a key risk factor in the transition from acute pain to chronic pain.[8] Additionally, individuals with pain may suffer from significant anxiety and depressive symptomatology that does not reach the severity of a clinical diagnosis.[9] Further, chronic pain negatively impacts quality of life[10] and contributes to higher levels of disability.[10] Individuals with chronic pain are also vulnerable to higher rates of obesity,[11] sleep disturbance,[12] and fatigue,[13] show greater rates of medical utilization,[10] and are vulnerable to problematic pain medication use.[14] Given the negative psychological consequences of chronic pain, it is worthwhile to consider three psychological mechanisms related to pain-related distress that have proven to be suitable targets for intervention: pain catastrophizing, fear of pain, and pain acceptance.

 

Pain catastrophizing is defined as a negative cognitive and affective mental set related to expected or actual pain experience.[15] Pain catastrophizing is characterized by magnification of the negative effects of pain, rumination about pain, and feelings of helplessness in coping with pain.[16] Pain catastrophizing has been associated with various forms of dysfunction, including increased rates of depression[17] and anxiety,[16] greater functional impairment and disability due to pain,[17] and lower overall quality of life.[18] Individuals who catastrophize about their pain report lower levels of perceived control over pain,[19] poorer emotional and social functioning,[20] and poorer responses to medical intervention.[21] Pain catastrophizing also contributes to poorer pain coping and overall functioning, making pain catastrophizing a viable target for psychological intervention. Addressing catastrophic thoughts about pain improves physical and psychological functioning in the short term[22] and improves the likelihood of returning to work despite the presence of persistent pain.[23]

 

Pain-related fear is another psychological mechanism that has significant implications for physical and psychological functioning in chronic pain. Pain-related fear reflects a fear of injury or worsening of one�s physical condition through activities that may trigger pain.[24] Pain-related fear is associated with increased pain intensity[25] and increased disability.[26] Pain-related fear contributes to disability by fostering passive or avoidant pain-coping behaviors that contribute to physical deconditioning and pain.[27] If left unaddressed, fear of pain can impair gains in physical rehabilitation settings.[28] Evidence suggests that pain catastrophizing precedes pain-related fear,[24] but both of these mechanisms uniquely contribute to pain and physical disability.[5,29]

 

Recently, there has been increased attention to the psychological flexibility model, which extends the fear-avoidance model of chronic pain and proposes to improve treatment outcomes through fostering of accepting attitudes towards pain.[30] Psychological flexibility has been defined as an ability to engage in the present moment in a way that allows the individual to either maintain or adjust his or her behavior in the way that is most consistent with internally held goals and values;[31] this idea is especially important in times of greater pain, given the narrowing of focus that is common during times of pain.[32] Similar to psychological acceptance, which fosters a nonjudgmental approach to distressing thoughts and emotions, pain acceptance is defined as a process of nonjudgmentally acknowledging pain, stopping maladaptive attempts to control pain, and learning to live a richer life in spite of pain.[33] Pain acceptance influences emotional functioning through two distinct mechanisms: a willingness to experience pain, which buffers against negative emotional reactions to pain, and continued engagement in valued activities despite the presence of pain, which bolsters positive emotions.[34] Acceptance of pain is theorized to uncouple the occurrence of catastrophic thoughts about pain from subsequent emotional suffering[35] and reduces reliance on control- or avoidance-based coping,[36] thereby freeing cognitive and emotional resources for more meaningful pursuits.[33] Pain acceptance has demonstrated positive associations with cognitive, emotional, social, and occupational functioning in chronic pain populations.[36] Acceptance of pain predicts lower levels of pain catastrophizing[37] and greater levels of positive affect, which in turn reduce the association between pain intensity and negative emotions.[38] Pain acceptance is a particularly salient target for intervention in mindfulness- and acceptance-based therapies for chronic pain, which will be discussed later (see Table 1).

 

Table 1 Descriptions of Psychological Therapies for Pain

Table 1: Descriptions of psychological therapies for pain.

 

Psychological Intervention as an Approach to Pain Management

 

Operant Behavioral Approaches

 

Fordyce[39] proposed a behavioral model of pain adaptation in which maladaptive behavioral responses to pain develop through contingent relief from pain or pain-related fear. According to this theory, a behavioral drive to avoid pain leads individuals to avoid behaviors that are painful but maintain their physical and emotional health; this avoidance contributes to the development and maintenance of pain chronicity, deconditioning, and depression.[40] Operant therapy for chronic pain utilizes reinforcement and punishment contingencies to reduce pain-related behaviors and foster more adaptive behaviors, including graded patterns of activity, activity pacing, and time-contingent medication management.[40] Behavioral therapy for pain has shown positive effects on a variety of domains, including pain experience, mood, negative cognitive appraisals, and functioning in social roles.[3]

 

A recent application of learning theory to chronic pain involves in vivo exposure treatment for pain-related fear, which focuses on decreasing the perceived harmfulness of physical activity.[41] Learning theory posits that the aversive signal of pain may be passed to neutral stimuli (like physical movement behaviors), which contributes to avoidant behavior. In vivo exposure therapy extinguishes threat, fear, and behavioral avoidance through progressively increasing engagement in painful behaviors in the absence of catastrophic outcomes; when these behaviors are performed without serious negative consequences, patients may realize that their expectations about the consequences of physical movement and pain are unrealistic.[24,42] Consistent with exposure treatments for phobias and other anxiety disorders, in vivo exposure treatment for fear of pain involves development of a personalized, graded hierarchy of activities that elicit a fearful response, psychoeducation related to pain, fear, and behavior, and ultimately slow and systematic exposure to activities related to the individual�s fear hierarchy.[41] In vivo exposure treatment for pain-related fear has demonstrated efficacy in improving pain, pain catastrophizing, and functional disability,[41] and in decreasing pain-related fear and anxiety, depression, and anxiety.[43] Exclusively behavioral approaches to pain have been less prevalent in recent years but have demonstrated efficacy in lower back pain samples, among others (see Table 2). The effects of in vivo exposure on functional disability appear to be mediated by decreased catastrophizing and perceived harmfulness of activity[41] but may be differentially effective for patients of differing baseline levels of functionality.[40]

 

Table 2 Demonstrated Efficacy of Psychological Interventions

Table 2: Demonstrated efficacy of psychological interventions by pain population.

 

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

 

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) adopts a biopsychosocial approach to the treatment of chronic pain by targeting maladaptive behavioral and cognitive responses to pain and social and environmental contingencies that modify reactions to pain.[44] CBT principles have demonstrated efficacy for a variety of psychiatric disorders and physical illnesses, in addition to pain.[45] CBT for pain develops coping skills intended to manage pain and improve psychological functioning, including structured relaxation, behavioral activation and scheduling of pleasurable events, assertive communication, and pacing of behavior in order to avoid prolongation or exacerbation of pain flares. Unlike operant-behavioral approaches, CBT for pain also addresses maladaptive beliefs about pain and pain catastrophizing through formal use of cognitive restructuring: identification and replacement of unrealistic or unhelpful thoughts about pain with thoughts that are oriented towards adaptive behavior and positive functioning.[44] CBT for pain has been widely implemented as a standard treatment for pain and constitutes the current �gold standard� for psychological intervention for pain.[44]

 

According to recent meta-analytic studies,[45] CBT for pain demonstrates small-to-medium effect sizes in a variety of domains and shows effects on pain and functioning comparable to standard medical care for pain.[3] CBT significantly improves disability and pain catastrophizing after treatment and yields longer-term improvements in disability, above and beyond the effects of usual medical care,[3] as well as smaller effects on pain, catastrophizing, and mood when compared to no treatment.[3] CBT-related changes in helplessness and catastrophizing are uniquely predictive of later changes in pain intensity and pain-related interference in daily functioning.[22] CBT is also a valuable adjunct treatment in physical rehabilitation programs.[46] The benefits of CBT for pain have been noted in many chronic pain populations (see Table 2) but may not be as robust in some populations, including fibromyalgia.[47] Further, some have suggested that the effects of CBT are at best moderately sized and not maintained long-term.[30] The intractable nature of chronic pain may make adaptation difficult as attempts to control pain may prove ineffectual, ultimately contributing to greater psychological distress.[36] Recent efforts have thus expanded the cognitive-behavioral model of pain intervention to address these issues, which has yielded two newer treatment modalities: mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Unlike CBT, these approaches focus on fostering acceptance of chronic pain rather than emphasizing strategies for controlling pain, thereby improving emotional well-being and greater engagement in nonpain-related pursuits. Though these interventions both target acceptance of pain, they differ in their therapeutic implementation and approach to meditation and daily practice.

 

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

 

Mindfulness-based interventions approach seeks to uncouple the sensory aspects of pain from the evaluative and emotional aspects of pain,[48] and promote detached awareness of the somatic and psychological sensations within the body.[48] As the chronic pain signal often cannot be extinguished, this detachment may enhance individual responses to chronic pain.[48] Through mindful awareness and meditation, thoughts about pain can be viewed as discrete events rather than an indication of an underlying problem that necessitates immediate and possibly maladaptive responses.[49] An individual may then recognize these sensations or thoughts as something familiar, which may serve to ameliorate emotional or maladaptive behavioral responses to pain.

 

MBSR is a form of meditation developed in Eastern philosophy and later adapted to Western intervention that enhances awareness and acceptance of physical, cognitive, and emotional states and disconnects psychological reactions from the uncontrollable experience of pain flares.[44] MBSR interventions have traditionally been structured as 2-hour sessions occurring weekly over 10 weeks that develop awareness of the body and proprioceptive signals, awareness of the breath and physical sensations, and development of mindful activities (such as eating, walking, and standing).[48] MBSR promotes mindfulness through daily meditation, which is a requisite component of the treatment.[50] The mechanisms underlying effective MBSR intervention may be similar to desensitization to pain, as meditations involve motionless sitting practices that expose participants to painful sensations in the absence of catastrophic consequences.[48,50] In this way, MBSR interventions may function similarly to in vivo exposure for pain but serve the additional purpose of increasing tolerance for negative emotions, thereby fostering more adaptive responses to pain.[50] MBSR also reduces rumination[51] and interoception of distressing physical signals[52] and increases mindful awareness[51] and acceptance of pain.[53] MBSR necessitates cultivation of daily mindfulness practices,[48] yet compliance rates of MBSR have been found to compare favorably to behavioral pain management techniques.[54] However, evidence on the importance of daily practice is mixed; the amount of time devoted to these mindful activities correlates with symptom improvement in some studies,[55] yet compliance rates appear to correlate only modestly with improvement in others.[54] Unlike CBT, which identifies thoughts as distorted and in need of change, practitioners of mindfulness adopt a nonjudgmental approach to thoughts as �discrete events� that encourage emotional distance from thoughts.[44,50] Further, CBT is a goal-oriented treatment modality, targeting an increased relaxation response or an altered behavioral or thought response, whereas mindfulness does not prescribe specific goals, relying instead on nonjudgmental observation.[50] Further, mindfulness instructors are expected to engage in their own daily mindfulness practices, whereas CBT practitioners do not necessarily need daily practice in CBT to teach it effectively.[50]

 

MBSR has demonstrated efficacy in addressing the severity of medical symptoms and psychological symptoms,[48] pain intensity,[56] and coping with stress and pain;[54] these treatment gains may last up to 4 years after intervention in many domains.[54] MBSR has been effective in diverse pain samples,[48,54,56] and in individuals with irritable bowel syndrome,[52] neck pain,[57] migraine,[57] fibromyalgia,[58] and chronic musculoskeletal pain.[59] Additionally, MBSR addresses co-occurring symptoms of depression in individuals with some chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia[60] and enhances the effects of multidisciplinary treatment on disability, anxiety, depression, and catastrophizing.[61] Meta-analytic studies of MBSR in chronic pain have shown small to moderate effects of MBSR on anxiety, depression, and psychological distress in patients with chronic illnesses including pain,[62] and these benefits tend to be robust across studies.[63] However, as with CBT, MBSR may be differentially effective across populations; a recent longitudinal study noted greater improvements in pain, health-related quality of life, and psychological well-being for back or neck pain than in fibromyalgia, chronic migraine, or headache.[57]

 

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

 

ACT adopts a theoretical approach that thoughts do not need to be targeted or changed; instead, responses to thoughts may be altered so that their negative consequences are minimized.[31] ACT interventions improve well-being through nonjudgmental and purposeful acknowledgment of mental events (ie, thoughts and emotions), fostering acceptance of these events, and increasing the ability of the individual to remain present and aware of personally relevant psychological and environmental factors; in doing so, individuals are able to adjust their behavior in a way that is consistent with their goals or values, rather than focusing on immediate relief from thoughts and emotions.[31] In the treatment of pain, ACT fosters purposeful awareness and acceptance of pain, thereby minimizing the focus on reducing pain or thought content and instead directing efforts towards fulfilling behavioral functioning.[44] ACT shares conceptual similarity with MBSR due to shared goals of promoting mindfulness and acceptance of pain but, unlike MBSR, ACT does not utilize daily mindful meditation and instead focuses on identification of the values and goals of the individual, which serve to direct behavior.[64] ACT-based interventions have demonstrated benefits on various aspects of mental health in chronic pain populations, including mental health quality of life, self-efficacy, depression, and anxiety.[65] Some studies of ACT interventions for chronic pain have reported medium or larger effect sizes for improvements in pain-related anxiety and distress, disability, number of medical visits, current work status, and physical performance,[66,67] with smaller effects of this intervention noted on pain and depression.[64] However, meta-analytic studies of acceptance-based therapies for pain have revealed that ACT does not show incrementally greater efficacy in comparison to other established psychological treatments for chronic pain.[64]

 

Future Directions and Remaining Questions

 

The extant literature suggests that each of the previously reviewed psychological interventions has retained value for the treatment of chronic pain. At present, there is little evidence of the superiority of any treatment approach, with one exception: CBT has demonstrated incrementally greater benefit in many areas than the effects of behavioral therapy.[3] As previously noted, however, operant-behavioral principles have been adopted for newer treatment approaches like in vivo exposure for fear of pain, which has demonstrated good benefit in multidisciplinary treatment with some pain populations.[41] Recent reviews have concluded that MBSR and ACT are promising but yield generally comparable effects to CBT, despite their distinct intervention methods.[64] The ability to draw conclusions regarding treatment superiority is further limited by the smaller number of high-quality studies of ACT or MBSR compared to the more robust CBT literature.[64]

 

Some critical questions remain regarding the comparative effectiveness of these interventions. First, the effects of CBT are significant in the short term but are not consistently maintained across time, possibly due to decreased adherence.[3] It is conceivable that acceptance-based approaches, which are predicated less on mechanistic coping strategies and instead foster accepting attitudes towards pain, may show greater rates of long-term adherence and longer-term benefits than CBT, though future study of this question is needed. Further, some pain disorders (such as fibromyalgia) have shown comparatively poorer treatment response to CBT than other pain disorders in some studies, which highlights the possible benefit of alternative interventions in such populations. Indeed, ACT and MBSR have also shown efficacy in fibromyalgia populations, though there remains a need to identify predictors of differential treatment response.[65]

 

Safety and Tolerability of Psychological Therapies

 

Psychological therapies for pain are presumed to be at low risk for adverse effects to the recipient; as a result, there is a dearth of empirical evidence regarding the risks of psychological interventions.[68] Some have suggested that patients who enter psychological treatment face risks of incorrect psychological diagnosis, psychological dependence, undermining of a patient�s ability to make their own decisions, or manipulation by the therapist to achieve nontherapeutic goals.[69,70] However, these concerns are alleviated through proper clinical and ethical training of practitioners and are not typically considered salient risks of psychological therapies when they are properly administered.[70] Recently, there has been a call for additional research to address the possibility of adverse psychotherapeutic effects[71] as well as a more systematic method of monitoring and identifying adverse events related to psychotherapy.[68] Though the rates of adverse effects of psychotherapy are still largely unknown, it is encouraging that recent studies have begun to specifically report the incidence of adverse events directly.[72]

 

Factors Affecting the Outcomes of Psychological Intervention

 

Practitioners should be cautioned against the assumption of homogeneity among patients with pain disorders, as a variety of factors may predict treatment response.[69,71] Turk[73] proposed that individuals coping with comparable levels of pain show distinct patterns of response that could be clustered into recognizable subclasses: �dysfunctional� patients, who report high levels of pain-related interference and distress; �interpersonally distressed� patients, who report lacking the support of loved ones in coping with their pain; and �adaptive copers,� who report notably higher levels of function and perceived social support and lower levels of pain-related dysfunction. Turk proposed that these patient subgroups respond differently to psychological intervention, and subsequent findings have supported this idea: �dysfunctional� patients have demonstrated greater response to interdisciplinary treatment involving psychological care than �interpersonally distressed� patients.[74] Identification of patient subgroups may be accomplished using instruments like the Multidisciplinary Pain Inventory[75] and through detailed assessment of chronic pain intensity and disability.[76] Additionally, patients� readiness to adopt a self-management approach to their own chronic pain appears to have significant implications for treatment response;[77] patients who are in the precontemplation stage of treatment readiness may benefit more from insight-focused therapy, versus those in an action stage, who may benefit more from establishing relaxation-based and other active coping strategies.[77] Patient readiness to self-manage pain may be assessed using the Pain Stages of Change Questionnaire.[77] Additionally, treatment response may be subject to patient beliefs about the importance of intervention-specific behaviors and about one�s own ability to perform these actions.[78]

 

Additionally, there may be demographic, psychological, and medical differences among patients that are relevant to treatment response, including the etiology of pain conditions, socioeconomic status, and cultural and ethnic background; these factors require further empirical research in order to optimize clinical outcomes but have not yet received adequate attention in the clinical literature.[79] For example, baseline levels of physical functioning appear to predict response to certain psychological treatment modalities like in vivo exposure for fear of pain.[40] Further, baseline levels of pain, depression, and anxiety have been found to predict dropout rates in some samples,[80,81] though these effects are not apparent in all samples.[3] In addition to being an important mechanism of treatment, there is evidence that baseline levels of fear of pain may also predict differential treatment response; individuals more fearful of pain at the outset of a multidisciplinary pain treatment program showed greater responsiveness to in vivo exposure for this problem.[28] The presence of medical comorbidities that are likely to impact future functioning is also important to consider; recently, psychological interventions have been developed that address comorbid symptoms of sleep,[82] obesity,[29] and fatigue[83] that may accompany chronic pain. Hybrid treatments may be more important in independent clinical practice, where comorbidity is more common.[82] Notably, there is little evidence that personality variables factor significantly into treatment response; most of the connections between personality traits and variables relevant to psychological intervention for pain are theoretical and have not consistently emerged in empirical research.[84,85]

 

Patient age is also an important consideration in examining responses to interventions for pain. Older adults have increased risks of various ailments related to pain, including arthritis and osteoporosis, but may have poor tolerance to medications for these conditions.[86] Further, age may alter psychological reactions to pain; the emotional aspects of pain are more strongly correlated with pain catastrophizing in younger adults than older adults while sensory aspects of pain appear more strongly related to pain catastrophizing in older adults.[87] Additionally, treatment protocols may require accommodation for elderly populations; addressing an elderly patient�s fear of movement may be complicated by a fear of falling that is absent in younger populations.[88] As memory concerns are more common in older adulthood, treatment protocols may be improved if they minimize the demand for memorized tasks.[89] Unfortunately, research is lacking for specific psychological interventions in elderly populations.[86] In general, psychological interventions are presumed to be of low risk for older adults,[90] and CBT for pain has received comparatively greater empirical support for older adults.[88] Overall, the efficacy of psychological intervention for pain in older adults is an area that warrants additional study in the future.

 

Treatment availability is a key consideration for psychological intervention, especially for patients in poverty or living in remote geographical locations. Though it is beyond the scope of this paper to review ethnic and socioeconomic contributors to health, low socioeconomic status is a significant risk factor for the development of chronic pain and factors heavily into racial disparities in health outcomes.[91] As financial challenges may restrict access to traditional psychological interventions, the importance of alternative modalities for provision of mental health interventions for chronic pain is paramount. Teleinterventions[92] and Internet-based interventions[93] may be viable for psychological treatment of chronic pain; Internet-based programs delivering ACT,[94] CBT,[46] and mindfulness interventions[95] have demonstrated benefits in psychosocial functioning, mood, and pain coping. However, methodologically rigorous clinical trials and evidence for maximally effective and efficient implementation of these programs are needed, as many interventions have shown modest effects and comparatively high dropout rates.[96]

 

Combining psychological treatment modalities with one another and with other medical interventions may constitute the next logical step in enhancing treatment outcomes. Institution of a flexible, goal-oriented approach, akin to ACT, may enhance engagement and adherence in CBT.[97] Additionally, a combination of graded in vivo exposure and ACT may show incremental benefit in addressing pain-related fear and anxiety.[98] Effects of CBT may also be enhanced in conjunction with treatments like biofeedback[99] and hypnosis.[100] A word of caution: presentation of psychological treatment by nontraditional practitioners may show variable effectiveness unless treatment approaches are adjusted appropriately.[101] If trained properly, however, appropriately-designed cognitive-behavioral interventions can be effectively administered by physiotherapists,[102] physical therapists,[103] nurses, and occupational therapists.[104]

 

Conclusion

 

Psychotherapy constitutes a valuable modality for addressing the behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and social factors that both result from and contribute to pain-related dysfunction and distress through enhancement of self-management strategies. There are several distinct psychological interventions that differ in their theoretical approaches, therapeutic targets, and areas of efficacy, but CBT, ACT, MBSR, and operant behavioral approaches to pain may all play important roles for enhancing the self-management abilities of individuals with chronic pain. However, there remains a need to identify predictors of differential treatment response and salient patient subgroups to optimize treatment outcomes, as well as additional and alternative means to provision of psychological services for those who are unwilling or unable to engage in traditional psychotherapy. More empirical research into contributing factors of differential treatment response and the dissemination of psychological treatment for pain may result in significant savings to the physical, emotional, and financial costs of chronic pain.

 

Footnotes

 

Disclosure:�The author reports no conflicts of interest in this work.

 

In conclusion, psychological therapies, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction and even chiropractic care, have been demonstrated to effective help treat chronic pain, according to research studies. The connection between the mind and body has previously been referenced as a cause for a variety of health issues, including chronic pain. Finally, the article above demonstrated the effects of psychological therapy for chronic pain management. Information referenced from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic as well as to spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .

 

Curated by Dr. Alex Jimenez

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Additional Topics: Back Pain

 

According to statistics, approximately 80% of people will experience symptoms of back pain at least once throughout their lifetimes. Back pain is a common complaint which can result due to a variety of injuries and/or conditions. Often times, the natural degeneration of the spine with age can cause back pain. Herniated discs occur when the soft, gel-like center of an intervertebral disc pushes through a tear in its surrounding, outer ring of cartilage, compressing and irritating the nerve roots. Disc herniations most commonly occur along the lower back, or lumbar spine, but they may also occur along the cervical spine, or neck. The impingement of the nerves found in the low back due to injury and/or an aggravated condition can lead to symptoms of sciatica.

 

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EXTRA IMPORTANT TOPIC: Managing Workplace Stress

 

 

MORE IMPORTANT TOPICS: EXTRA EXTRA: Car Accident Injury Treatment El Paso, TX Chiropractor

 

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