Therapy Targeted at Controlling Emotions Could Help Ease Chronic Physical Pain

Controlling your feelings may just additionally relieve your ache. An experiment the place power ache sufferers discovered to show down unfavourable feelings thru a mixture of periods with a web-based therapist with homework confirmed important good fortune easing bodily struggling, in line with a piece of writing within the magazine JAMA Network Open.

“Beyond its sensory experience, chronic pain is an intrinsically emotional experience associated with heightened negative emotions, including anger, worry, and low mood, alongside a diminished capacity to regulate emotions,” according to the paper.

The papers’ authors wrote that this may be the first experiment to focus primarily on emotional regulation for pain management.

Chronic Pain and Emotion Regulation

Pain is officially considered chronic if it lasts more than 3 months. That definition applies to about 20 percent to 30 percent of the population that experiences pain. Although most people first experience pain as a physical sensation, it is also tied closely to emotions.

The question the researchers wanted to answer was, if you could control the emotions that sprang from the pain, could you also ease the primary physical suffering? This approach is known as dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). Previous research had shown that techniques to change thought patterns — cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) — did not help relieve pain.

Besides focusing on emotions instead of thoughts or physical sensations, the study was unique in another way. It employed a hybrid approach to treatment that included group sessions with a therapist via Zoom, a handbook with worksheets, and a mobile app that helps build skills for better emotional regulation.

To study the approach’s efficacy, a team of researchers in Australia divided chronic pain sufferers into two groups. About half used the hybrid DBT treatment, while the other half continued with their normal pain management regime.

Read More: Chronic Pain Makes You Think Differently

Reducing Pain and Depression

The results showed promise — but also that the approach takes time. After nine weeks, patients showed better command of their feelings, with “[…] a significantly greater reduction in emotion dysregulation,” according to the paper.

At 21 weeks, the effects were stronger and more widespread, with notable reductions in pain and depression levels. The treatment had lighter impacts on reducing stress, decreasing anxiety, and improving sleep quality.

While the study is too small to represent a full approval of DBT, the results show that the technique is worth exploring — both in terms of further research, as well as integration into clinical practice. Some doctors have already begun targeting emotional dysregulation as one of several strategies in treating chronic pain patients. This study could both help expand the approach as well as intensify it.

That certainly wouldn’t hurt.

Read More: Those With Chronic Pain More Likely to Have Suicidal Thoughts

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Before becoming a member of Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, that specialize in U.S. lifestyles science coverage and world clinical occupation problems. He started his occupation in newspapers, however switched to clinical magazines. His paintings has seemed in publications together with Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.