The list of treatments for low back pain is endless, but few offer relief for the one in four Americans who suffer from this persistent pain and leading cause of disability globally. More than 80% of those with chronic low back pain wished there were better treatment options. Yet, without sufficient pain relief, many people need to take opioids, which can be addictive.
The good news? A multi-institutional team, led by researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that eight weeks of either mindfulness or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) training led to meaningful improvements among adults with chronic low back pain that's currently treated with opioids and had not responded to prior treatments. These behavioral therapies helped improve physical function and quality of life and reduce pain and opioid dose in a randomized clinical trial. The benefits persisted for up to 12 months.
The findings were published today (April 7) in JAMA Network Open. This is the largest trial to date comparing mindfulness with CBT as treatments for opioid-treated chronic pain and the research team followed up with participants over a longer time period than many previous trials of mindfulness.
"Both mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy were shown to be safe, effective treatments, providing lasting benefits for people with opioid-treated chronic back pain," said Aleksandra Zgierska, Jeanne L. and Thomas L. Leaman, MD, endowed professor and vice chair of research of family and community medicine and professor of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine and of public health sciences at the Penn State College of Medicine, who led the study. "These evidence-based behavioral therapies should be standard of care available to our patients."
