Mind-based therapy programmes may help ease chronic back pain, new research suggests. Patients who took part in such programmes were more likely to have noticeable and lasting improvements in back pain than those who stuck to their usual routines, investigators found. Both of the approaches tested in the study - mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) - can be helpful for people who haven't benefited from other therapies, said lead author Daniel Cherkin, of the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. "Maybe it'll make a difference for them," he told Reuters Health. MBSR attempts to increase a person's attention to thoughts, emotions and sensations in the moment through yoga and meditation, the researchers explain in the Journal of the American Medical Association. CBT educates people about pain and its relation to reactions and activities. CBT also provides instructions and tools to cope with pain.
While CBT is known to be effective for chronic pain and is recommended for lower back pain, before now only one other study had looked at MBSR for chronic low back pain, the researchers say. Cherkin and colleagues randomly assigned 342 adults with chronic low back pain to one of three groups. The pain had no known cause and had lasted for at least three months. One group continued whatever they were doing to manage their pain. A second group also received MBSR and a third took part in CBT. Participants in the two mind-body therapy groups were offered eight weekly two-hour group sessions. The MBSR group was also offered a six-hour retreat.
Overall, about 54 percent attended six or more sessions.    Fox News