Back pain isn’t an uncommon occurrence in many working adults, and unconventional methods like meditation and cognitive behavioural therapy can be effective in alienating the condition, researchers say.
The study which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) was a clinical trial with 342 adults ages 20-70 who had suffered from lower back pain for an average of seven years.
After 26 weeks, the researchers discovered that patients treated with cognitive behavioural therapy or mindfulness-based stress reduction and yoga had “clinically meaningful improvement” of functional limitations compared to those with usual care.
One third, selected at random, was treated with MBSR and yoga, while another third used cognitive behavioural therapy, which helps patients identify and resolve bad behavioural choices and negative thoughts.
The last third was treated with pain medications.
The improvement was measured at 61 percent for Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MSBR) and yoga, ahead of 58 percent for CBT and 44 percent for conventional medicine.
“These findings suggest that MBSR may be an effective treatment option for patients with chronic low back pain,” the authors wrote.
S.O.Z