Behaviour research and therapy
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Operant-behavioural and cognitive-behavioural treatment for chronic low back pain.
Fifty-eight outpatients with chronic low back pain were randomly allocated to one of six experimental conditions. Four conditions were designated as treatment conditions and two as control conditions. The four treatment groups consisted of: cognitive treatment (either with or without relaxation training) and behavioural treatment (either with or without relaxation training). ⋯ However, these differences were only weakly maintained at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. The behavioural conditions improved significantly more than the cognitive conditions from pre to posttreatment on the self-rated measure of functional impairment, but this difference was not maintained at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Progressive relaxation training was found to make little contribution to either cognitive or behavioural treatments.
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Previous experimental research on the effects of incorrect intensity expectations of aversive events can be criticized because intensity expectations were not manipulated independently from changes in objective intensity. The present study aims at investigating the effects of incorrect intensity expectations on the immediate and later responses to a painful stimulus, and on the acquisition of anticipatory responses, with proper experimental control. Subjects (n = 62) received 20 painful stimuli of varying intensity. ⋯ Overpredicted painful experiences were related to a faster decrease in subjective fear compared to the control group, but did not influence other variables. The findings support the notion that underpredictions contribute to the acquisition of fear and disrupt habituation processes. The asymmetrical processing of the two kinds of incorrectly predicted experiences is discussed.