How to relieve chronic pain, that which has settled for more than three months, often years, and which 20 to 30 % of the population face? Australian researchers offer a new approach, based on a program combining mindfulness, control of emotions and distress tolerance, which they evaluated in the context of a clinical trial. And the results, published on May 6 in JAMA Network Open, prove the relevance of this strategy.
“Chronic pain is more than a sensory experience, it has a very emotional dimension”, explain New Scientist One of the investigators, Nell Norman-Nott, of the University of New South Wales, in Sydney. “” “In fact, in about 80 % of people who live with chronic pain, levels of anxiety and depression are higher“That in the general population. Among the negative emotions associated with chronic pain, there is anger and concern. There is also a difficulty in regulating emotions, that is to say, in order to be simple, to be able to appease your negative emotions by strengthening your positive emotions.
Less negative emotions, less pain
To break the “vicious circle”Pain that amplifies negative emotions, which aggravates pain, Nell Norman-Nott and his colleagues tested a new strategy with 89 volunteers, mostly women, whose pain had started sixteen years ago. They were divided into two groups: half of them followed, for eight weeks, online group sessions with a therapist, usual against pain.
A week after the end of the protocol, “there was [dans le premier groupe] Notable improvements regarding emotional dysregulation, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and well-being in general” noted Cosmos, An Australian scientific news site. Six months later, the participants always had a better mastery of emotions “And reported that their pain was significantly less important”.
[…] Read more on international mail
On the same subject:
Related news :