Latest news with #cognitivefunctionatherapy
WebMD
a day ago
- Health
- WebMD
Back Pain Relief From This Therapy Can Last for Years
back pain treatments that offer lasting relief, or any relief. That's why a surprising new study, published Wednesday, is drawing public and clinical attention, showing that adults with disabling low-back pain who completed just eight sessions of a novel therapy saw sustained improvements in their pain and activity levels – even after three years. The treatment, called cognitive functional therapy (CFT), blends physical therapy with a psychology-based approach. CFT "teaches patients how to manage their own symptoms, what their pain experience means, and how they can move forward without injuring themselves," said Chad E. Cook, PT, PhD, a pain researcher at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. (Cook was not involved in the study.) Teaching people to self-manage pain is the cornerstone of the approach, Cook said. It's "why the authors saw improvements at three years – which is very uncommon." The study included 312 adults in Australia with an average pain level of 4 or more on a 10-point scale – enough to interfere with daily living and work activities. Of those who completed the CFT (which included seven 30- to 60-minute sessions over 12 weeks, plus an eighth "booster" session at 26 weeks), more than 40% saw improvement in their activity level – and maintained that improvement after three years, compared to 17% in a comparison group who received usual care. Pain scores dropped by an average of 2 points in the CFT group, compared with less than 1 point in the usual care group, and that was also sustained after three years. The average age of people in the study was 48, but benefits were seen among a wide range of ages, said study author Mark Hancock, PhD. Here are three things to know about CFT for low-back pain, a condition that affects more than 1 in 4 U.S. adults. CFT helped the people that nothing else worked for. Most people in the study did not expect the treatment to work, likely because other treatments they'd tried had failed. "The poor outcomes of mainstream approaches are one of the reasons the authors created CFT," Cook said. "Before giving up, it is worth speaking with a CFT clinician to determine if the approach is right for you." People with the most severe low-back pain have the most to gain: They're the ones who tend to reap the greatest benefit from CFT, the research showed. CFT is low risk and can be done anywhere. There's no clear go-to therapy for low-back pain, and many options – like surgery or opioids – carry high risks. Research on most treatments shows mixed results, and scientists haven't yet figured out how to tailor them to individual patients. But anyone can do CFT, anywhere. Many of the people in the study did their sessions via virtual appointments, although Hancock recommends doing the first session in person. It's movement and psychotherapy combined. A course of CFT is highly personalized, but it might include: Tailoring therapy based on what's causing your pain – an old back injury or past surgery, for example – and your experiences from treatments that didn't work Tracking exactly when and where pain shows up – like if it worsens while sitting, climbing stairs, or after certain movements Challenging unhelpful beliefs about pain, such as "I will never be able to work again" or "my posture is wrong" Practicing specific movements and psychological strategies with the therapist – like learning to move despite discomfort, training your body not to respond by tensing up (known as muscle guarding), and focusing instead on relaxing the muscles (which can ease pain) Relearning everyday movements that matter to you – such as standing or sitting without pain, walking the dog, or getting back on the bike – along with strength training and lifestyle habits that support recovery Developing helpful internal monologues, like "I became mindful to my response to pain" or "I don't fear my pain anymore" How Do You Get Started with CFT? Because it's an emerging therapy, you may not readily find a CFT-trained physical therapist. If you can't find one close to you, Hancock suggested searching for a physical therapist who describes themselves as "more of a coach, helping you to understand your back pain and giving you skills and confidence to return to activity." In the meantime, Hancock, a professor of physiotherapy and back pain researcher at Australia's Macquarie University in Sydney, offers these tips: Try to keep moving during pain, rather than resting or avoiding activity. Relax and try to move normally. View your pain as a warning sign, but not as message that damage is happening. If you gradually do more, the pain usually is reduced.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
The new talking therapy that can help reduce back pain for up to three years
Talking therapies can reduce pain and disability among people with lower back pain, a new study suggests. Academics found the benefits can be seen for up to three years after treatment. Psychotherapists use various talking therapies to help people to overcome stress, emotional and relationship problems or troublesome habits. For some, lower back pain will be a single incident which recovers on its own but most people with the condition will suffer long-term problems with unpredictable flare-ups. Most treatments for the condition have 'small to moderate' effects that do not last for a long period of time, experts said. The new study, published in the journal Lancet Rheumatology, focused on a type of psychotherapy called cognitive functional therapy (CFT) – a type of psychotherapy to 'address the causal mechanisms' of chronic lower back pain and help to change the way people think about and respond to pain. An international team of researchers, led by experts in Australia, wanted to examine whether CFT brought long-term benefits for patients with lower back pain. More than 1,000 patients from Australia with lower back pain were recruited to the study. A third were given 'usual care', a third were given CFT and the final third were given CFT plus another technique known as biofeedback, which tries to teach a person to control automatic body functions. People who received 'usual care' were given what their GP surgery recommended or what they chose. Some 300 people with an average age of 48 continued the study to the three-year follow-up point, split between each of the three groups. Researchers found that CFT, and CFT and biofeedback, were both more effective than usual care in reducing activity limitation caused by lower back pain. And they also were more effective for reducing pain intensity at three years. There were no significant differences among patients who did and did not use biofeedback techniques, prompting researchers to say the use of biofeedback 'did not add to effectiveness'. 'Treatment sessions of CFT produced sustained effects at three years for people with chronic disabling low back pain,' the researchers wrote. 'These long-term effects are novel and provide the opportunity to markedly reduce the effect of chronic back pain if the intervention can be widely implemented.' They added: 'CFT is the first treatment for chronic disabling low back pain with good evidence of large, long-term effects on disability. 'It offers a high-value, low-risk intervention with long-term benefits for patients with persistent, disabling low back pain.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Talking therapy for back pain can help patients for up to three years
Talking therapies can reduce pain and disability among people with lower back pain, a new study suggests. And the benefit can be seen for up to three years after treatment, academics found. Psychotherapists use various talking therapies to help people to overcome stress, emotional and relationship problems or troublesome habits. For some, lower back pain will be a single incident which recovers on its own but most people with the condition will suffer long-term problems with unpredictable flare-ups. Most treatments for the condition have 'small to moderate' effects that do not last for a long period of time, experts said, The new study, published in the journal Lancet Rheumatology, focused on a type of psychotherapy called cognitive functional therapy (CFT) – a type of psychotherapy to 'address the causal mechanisms' of chronic lower back pain and help to change the way people think about and respond to pain. An international team of researchers, led by experts in Australia, wanted to examine whether CFT brought long-term benefits for patients with lower back pain. More than 1,000 patients from Australia with lower back pain were recruited to the study. A third were given 'usual care', a third were given CFT and the final third were given CFT plus another technique known as biofeedback, which tries to teach a person to control automatic body functions. People who received 'usual care' were given what their GP surgery recommended or what they chose. Some 300 people with an average age of 48 continued the study to the three-year follow-up point, split between each of the three groups. Researchers found that CFT, and CFT and biofeedback, were both more effective than usual care in reducing activity limitation caused by lower back pain. And they also were more effective for reducing pain intensity at three years. There were no significant differences among patients who did and did not use biofeedback techniques, prompting researchers to say the use of biofeedback 'did not add to effectiveness'. 'Treatment sessions of CFT produced sustained effects at three years for people with chronic disabling low back pain,' the researchers wrote. 'These long-term effects are novel and provide the opportunity to markedly reduce the effect of chronic back pain if the intervention can be widely implemented.' They added: 'CFT is the first treatment for chronic disabling low back pain with good evidence of large, long-term effects on disability. 'It offers a high-value, low-risk intervention with long-term benefits for patients with persistent, disabling low back pain.'
