Single Session Pain Psychology Treatment: Comparative Efficacy & Mechanisms

"Empowered Relief" Single Session Pain Psychology Treatment: Comparative Efficacy & Mechanisms

This study aims to compare the efficacy of a single session psychological treatment, "Empowered Relief" (ER), with the current standard of care, group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) specifically on individuals with chronic low back pain who have pain-specific distress as indexed by pain catastrophizing scores.

This is a randomized 3-arm study comprised of 2 active psychological treatments (ER & CBT) and a health education (HE) arm that controls for time and attention. Study goals are to provide scientific evidence to demonstrate the efficacy of ER, and also provide a comparison of said efficacy against the current gold standard group treatment for PC -- manualized 8-session pain-CBT.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Axial low back pain without radicular symptoms
• Pain duration ≥ 6 months (per recent NIH Task Force on Research Standards for Chronic Low Back Pain based on participant self-report
• Average pain intensity ≥4/10 for the past month at screening visit
• English fluency
• Males and females 18-70 years of age
• Pain Catastrophizing Score (PCS) ≥20

Exclusion Criteria:

• Gross cognitive impairment
• Active suicidal ideation or severe depression
• Previous attendance in the active treatment groups (any ER classes ever taken or CBT in the past 3 years)
• Participating in any interventional research study or completed participation in the last 2 months; enrollment in an observational study is acceptable
• Current substance abuse
• Clear likelihood to disrupt fellow class participants (e.g., personality disorder) at the discretion of the study team