Chronic pain conditions tend to be extremely complex, which is why successful treatments are often so difficult to find. Some providers know that certain medications can help to drown out some symptoms, but opioids don’t really treat the underlying issue. According to new research out of Colorado, targeting the brain with psychological therapy could be much more successful at treating the root cause of a number of chronic pain conditions.
The Psychological Side Of Pain
Chronic pain is typically caused by how the brain interprets neurons and other signals from the body, so it stands to reason that our focus should be on working to change how our brain understands the signals it’s being sent. That’s obviously easier said than done, but according to researchers at the Intermountain Neuroimaging Consortium on the CU Bolder campus, it can be done.
For the study, lead author Yoni Ashar, who conducted the study while earning his PhD in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at CU Boulder, and team recruited 151 men and women who had back pain for at least six months at an intensity level of at least four on a scale of zero to 10. Participants were divided into three groups, with the treatment group receiving eight one-hour sessions of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), a technique developed by Los Angeles-based pain psychologist Alan Gordon.
The goal of PRT is to educate the patient about the role their brain has in generating chronic pain, to help them reappraise their pain as they engage in movements that they’ve been afraid to perform, and to help address emotions that can exacerbate their pain. For example, if a person always has pain when they sit down, they’ll be asked to perform the action slowly, pay attention to how it really feels and to acknowledge the action of sitting as being a safe on. They are also asked to pay attention to when pain develops in other parts of their day, because it could be stress or activity induced.
Finding A Solution To Pain
Study senior author Tor Wager said that while pain may be caused by your brain, it doesn’t mean that it’s something the brain is making up.
“This isn’t suggesting that your pain is not real or that it’s ‘all in your head’,” stressed Wager, a former professor in CU Boulder’s Institute of Cognitive Science, now at Dartmouth College. “What it means is that if the causes are in the brain, the solutions may be there, too.”
According to researchers, 66 percent of patients in the treatment group were pain-free or nearly pain free at the end of treatment, compared to 20 percent of the treatment group and 10 percent of the no-treatment group. However, they also noted that this type of treatment should only be considered for pain that’s being caused by a brain misinterpretation, not pain that is rooted in an acute injury or disease with a clear pain pathway.
We’ll keep tabs on this technique, but the idea is there. If the cause is in the brain, a solution can be found there too. If you need help overcoming your chronic pain condition, reach out to Dr. Cohn and his team today.