Originally published February 23 2006
Dutch study finds cognitive therapy works for relieving back pain
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Researchers from the University of Maastricht in The Netherlands have found that chronic back pain can be treated with cognitive behavioral therapy.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is as effective as active physical therapy to alleviate chronic back pain, a study by University of Maastricht in The Netherlands has found.
"People with disabling low back pain should be active and this can either be achieved by physical training or cognitive behavioral training," said Dr Rob Smeets, the lead author of the study.
"Physical training is a little bit more preferable for people with a relatively low level of disability at the start of treatment, but the cognitive behavioral treatment is to be preferred when people are moderately to severely disabled," said Dr Smeets.
The aim of the physical therapy was to make the back muscles strong by way of aerobic and other exercises, while the cognitive therapy aimed at helping patients get over their fear of being physically more active.
An analysis of the results showed that those who were on either cognitive or physical therapy reported less back complaints and had better mobility than those in the no therapy group.
"Combining the treatments does not improve patients' condition further than using the individual treatments," Dr Smeets said.
He expressed surprise at the finding, but attributed it to there being a limit on how much a chronic backache can improve.
Dr Smeets added that the researchers were keeping an eye on the study subjects to see if the results were long-lasting.
Dr Scott Eathorne of Providence Hospital in Michigan said cognitive therapy addresses physical aspects of the pain and also how patients think about their problem.
According to US National Institutes of Health, 80 per cent Americans have, at some point, suffered from acute backache.
In many cases, back pain is more a lifestyle disorder than a clinical illness.
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