But where's the
evidence...?
Decades of Research
It is well understood that stress and our emotions have a direct impact on our physiology. Evidence from over 30 years of research into the mind-body connection in health has been collated by our colleagues at the Association for the Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms. For helpful summaries of key studies from this extensive research, click below.
In more recent years, this research has been advanced by emerging studies which have shown that we can actually reverse chronic pain and other persistent unexplained symptoms by applying techniques that regulate the nervous system, retrain the brain, and help us process our emotions.
Below we highlight three recent studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of a mind-body approach to treatment in specific patient populations: back pain and fibromyalgia.
The Boulder Back Pain Study
A study undertaken at the University of Colorado found that 33 of 50 participants (66%) who underwent four weeks of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) became pain-free or nearly pain-free, compared with 10 of 51 participants (20%) given placebo treatment and 5 of 50 participants (10%) who received usual care, with gains largely maintained through 1-year follow-up.
PRT is a system of psychological techniques designed to treat chronic pain by retraining the brain to interpret pain signals as safe rather than threatening
Harvard Medical School Back Pain Study
In a study carried out at Harvard Medical School, 64% of the patient group who underwent psychophysiologic symptom relief therapy (PSRT) reported being pain free (0/10 pain) at 26 weeks, compared with 25% and 17% in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and usual care groups, respectively.
Fibromyalgia Study
In this study, 230 adults with Fibromyalgia were randomly assigned to Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), or Fibromyalgia education.
All groups completed eight 90-minute sessions and were assessed after treatment and at six months. EAET produced greater improvements than Fibromyalgia education in terms of overall symptoms, widespread pain, physical functioning, cognitive dysfunction, anxiety, depression, emotional state and life satisfaction.
Compared with CBT, EAET led to led to significantly lower Fibromyalgia symptoms and a higher percentage of patients achieving 50% pain reduction (22.5% versus 8.3%).
