Reattribution to Mind-Brain Processes and Recovery From Chronic Back Pain: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial

Question:

Does pain reprocessing therapy, a promising psychological treatment, help patients view primary chronic pain as caused by mind or brain processes?

Findings:

In this secondary analysis of clinical trial data, natural language methods were applied to understand patients’ beliefs about the underlying causes of their primary chronic back pain. Pain reprocessing therapy led to significant increases in mind- or brain-related attributed causes of pain and increases in mind-brain attributions were associated with reduced pain.

Meaning:

These results suggest that patients’ pain attributions are often inaccurate, and that promoting mind- or brain-related attributions may support the effective treatment of primary chronic pain; helping patients to consider pain as “in the brain” may help relieve it.