Somatic Experiencing® for patients with low back pain and comorbid posttraumatic stress symptoms - a randomised controlled trial

Development of a pain self-management intervention framework for people with spinal cord injury

BACKGROUND

 Pain is the most common reason for medical visits to primary health care practitioners. Pain self-management interventions are encouraged and there is no known self-management intervention framework available that clinicians and people with spinal cord injury (PWSCI) can use to guide treatment selection.

AIM

 This study aimed to develop a pain self-management intervention framework for PWSCI.

SETTING

 Online and facilitated in Gauteng, South Africa.

METHODS

 A three-round modified e-Delphi method was used to reach an 80% consensus among a 21-expert panel. Fifty-nine interventions were distributed via REDCap and a final online audio meeting was held to either include or exclude interventions in the final framework. SPSS v27 was used to analyse descriptive data and content analysis was used for qualitative responses.

RESULTS

 The final developed pain self-management framework consists of 56 interventions and includes interventions from multiple health professions to encompass medical, psychological, therapeutic and social interventions. Interventions are also specified for nociceptive and/or neuropathic pain and grouped according to the biopsychosocial model.

CONCLUSION

 The interprofessional framework may be used as a guideline for PWSCI to alleviate pain, as well as assist health professionals in clinical decision-making, by providing them with the freedom to choose acceptable and adequate interventions that may be appropriate to treat the affected individual's pain.Contribution: Pain management is a basic need at the primary healthcare level and PWSCI need access to the broad range of interventions available to manage their pain. The framework highlights the variety of appropriate interventions to guide both health professionals and PWSCI with pain relief options.

Complementary and integrative interventions for PTSD

ABSTRACTTo treat the impact of trauma, most current evidence supports the use of trauma-focused psychotherapy as the first line approach. However, millions of individuals exposed to trauma worldwide seek Complementary and Integrative Health (CIH) therapies in hopes of achieving wellness above and beyond reducing symptoms. But what is the evidence for CIH interventions? What are potential pitfalls? Given the growing popularity of and strong interest in CIH, EJPT is featuring research on these approaches in this special issue. The papers range from common interventions such as mindfulness to the use of service dogs and scuba diving to alleviate trauma related symptoms. A featured editorial highlights the importance of defining when, where, and how placebo responses work. Nonspecific elements of treatment such as positive expectations, therapeutic rituals, healing symbols, and social interactions are identified as factors influencing treatment response and scientists looking to add to the CIH evidence base are encouraged to consider the impact and methodological challenges these elements present. CIH interventions more specifically recognize and harness some of these factors in addition to intervention-specific factors such as attention or emotion regulation along with focus on overall wellbeing. The body of work in this special issue supports the emerging evidence for meditative and relaxation-based interventions and illustrates a creative but nascent state of the field. Cross-intervention mechanisms that may play a role in achieving wellness, such as arousal reduction, emotion regulation, posttraumatic growth, and positive affect are highlighted. The trauma field would benefit from accumulation of evidence for promising CIH interventions, evaluation of potential mechanisms, and examination of health and wellbeing outcomes. With the paucity of high-quality trials, it would be premature to recommend CIH interventions as first-line treatments. However, the emerging literature on CIH continues to advance our understanding of what works and how these interventions exert their effects.

A Mixed Comparison of Interventions for Kinesiophobia in Individuals With Musculoskeletal Pain: Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

Objective

This systematic review aims to make a mixed comparison of interventions for kinesiophobia and individuals with musculoskeletal pain.

Methods

A comprehensive search strategy was conducted in the database of PubMed, MEDLINE, and Web of Science with the inclusion criteria: (1) randomized controlled design; (2) patients with musculoskeletal pain as participants; (3) treatments protocols of kinesiophobia as interventions or comparisons; (4) the score of Tampa Scale Kinesiophobia (TSK) as outcome measures. A network meta-analysis was used to synthesize the data after checking the model consistency. The risk of bias was assessed by the Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias Assessment Tool.

Results

Thirty-one studies were included in this review after a comprehensive search strategy with a low risk of bias and good consistency. According to the results of the network meta-analysis, a multi-modal treatment protocol had the highest probability to become the best choice in dealing with kinesiophobia caused by musculoskeletal pain, whereas psychological treatment protocols also showed a potentially positive effect on musculoskeletal pain-induced kinesiophobia.

Conclusion

Multi-modal protocols could be recommended as the preferred option when dealing with kinesiophobia caused by musculoskeletal pain. However, it is still worth mentioning that there are also potentially positive therapeutic effects of psychological interventions. Since the concept of kinesiophobia is based on the fear-avoidance model, the psychological mechanism should be paid enough attention to during treatment.

Registration Number

CRD42021286450.

How Processing of Sensory Information From the Internal and External Worlds Shape the Perception and Engagement With the World in the Aftermath of Trauma: Implications for PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is triggered by an individual experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, often precipitating persistent flashbacks and severe anxiety that are associated with a fearful and hypervigilant presentation. Approximately 14–30% of traumatized individuals present with the dissociative subtype of PTSD, which is often associated with repeated or childhood trauma. This presentation includes symptoms of depersonalization and derealization, where individuals may feel as if the world or self is “dream-like” and not real and/or describe “out-of-body” experiences. Here, we review putative neural alterations that may underlie how sensations are experienced among traumatized individuals with PTSD and its dissociative subtype, including those from the outside world (e.g., touch, auditory, and visual sensations) and the internal world of the body (e.g., visceral sensations, physical sensations associated with feeling states). We postulate that alterations in the neural pathways important for the processing of sensations originating in the outer and inner worlds may have cascading effects on the performance of higher-order cognitive functions, including emotion regulation, social cognition, and goal-oriented action, thereby shaping the perception of and engagement with the world. Finally, we introduce a theoretical neurobiological framework to account for altered sensory processing among traumatized individuals with and without the dissociative subtype of PTSD.