Therapeutic neuroscience education may be valuable for those who are suffering from chronic back pain.
A new study examined 120 patients with chronic back pain and provided them with either therapeutic neuroscience education + cognition-targeted motor control training or traditional physical therapy exercises. Over the course of 3, 6, and 12 months, the subjects who received the neuroscience education were experiencing dramatically improved symptoms compared to the subjects receiving traditional physical therapy.
Interestingly, although the subjects improved in symptoms, there was no visible change in the gray matter of the brain that is often associated with central sensitization.
Implications
This study adds to the growing evidence that for subjects who exhibit symptoms of central sensitization, pain science education can help lower psychosocial threat perception and improve symptoms.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to know for certain whether the results were due exclusively to the neuroscience education, exclusively due to the cognition-targeted motor control training, or the combination of the two. Cognition-targeted motor control training has previously been demonstrated to help subjects with central sensitization due to their lack of somatosensory awareness, so it is possible that these exercises were providing most of the benefit.
Additionally, although this study is useful for low back pain patients, it is impossible to generalize these findings to other areas of the body due to the fact that back pain is more frequently associated with central sensitization.
Finally, it is very interesting that the areas of the brain associated with central sensitization did not show any lasting changes. Hopefully, future studies will elucidate protocols for creating visible changes in the gray matter of the brain as well as determine whether or not neural changes can actually correlate with clinical outcomes or if these changes are inconsequential.
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