Educational and behavioral interventions for back pain in primary care.

STUDY DESIGN AND OBJECTIVES

A review of the literature was undertaken to identify and summarize randomized trials of educational, cognitive, and behavioral interventions for people with chronic low back pain.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA

Studies of back schools have varied widely in patient characteristics, back school length and content, and comparison treatment. The available evidence suggests that back schools do not affect long-term outcomes of people with back pain.

METHODS

MEDLINE and PsycLIT databases were searched to identify randomized trials of cognitive and behavioral treatments for chronic low back pain. Outcome data were extracted from articles that met the meta-analysis inclusion criteria.

RESULTS

The meta-analysis found that cognitive and behavioral treatments were superior to control conditions after treatment on measures of chronic low back pain, pain behavior, and disability. Follow-up comparisons of cognitive and behavioral treatments versus control conditions were not available. This meta-analysis did not find cognitive and behavioral therapies to differ from other active treatments on specific outcome measures, although only a few studies were available for each measure.

CONCLUSION

It may be useful to incorporate cognitive-behavioral interventions in primary care settings, but additional research is needed to evaluate their efficacy in improving specific outcomes.