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upstart writes:

Chronic Pain Treatment Should Include Psychological Interventions:

"There are several effective nonmedical treatments for chronic pain, and psychological treatments emerge among the strongest of these," said Mary Driscoll, a researcher at Yale University and first author on the issue's main article. "People who engage in psychological treatments can expect to experience meaningful reductions in pain itself as well as improvements in physical functioning and emotional well-being."

[...] Research has shown that psychological factors can play a role in the onset, severity, and duration of chronic pain. For those reasons, several psychological interventions have been shown to be effective in treating chronic pain.

In the article, Driscoll and her colleagues describe the interventions that have been most widely studied by the pain community, including:

• Supportive psychotherapy, which emphasizes unconditional acceptance and empathic understanding
• Relaxation training, or the use of breathing, muscle relaxation, and visual imagery to counteract the body's stress response
• Biofeedback, which involves monitoring patients' physiological responses to stress and pain (e.g., increased heart rate, muscle tension) and teaching them how to down-regulate these responses
• Hypnosis by a trained clinician, which may induce changes in pain processing, expectations, or perception and incorporates relaxation training
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy, in which patients learn to reframe maladaptive thoughts about pain that cause distress; change unhelpful behaviors, such as isolation and inactivity; and develop helpful behavioral coping strategies (e.g., relaxation)
• Mindfulness-based interventions, which help to disentangle physical pain from emotional pain via increased awareness of the body, the breath, and activity
• Psychologically informed physical therapy, which integrates physical therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy

The PSPI [(Psychological Science in the Public Interest)] report also addresses topics such as integrated pain care, or the blending of medical, psychological, and social aspects of health care; the future of pain treatment; and improving the availability and integration of pain-management strategies.

Journal Reference:
Mary A. Driscoll, Robert R. Edwards, William C. Becker, et al. Psychological Interventions for the Treatment of Chronic Pain in Adults:, Psychological Science in the Public Interest (DOI: 10.1177/15291006211008157)

Original Submission