Psychological interventions for patients with chronic back pain

Abstract

Chronic back pain is a major cause of disability and absenteeism in Western countries. Intense suffering associated with backache is pooly relieved by traditional medical treatments and many alternative therapies have been developed to approach this problem, including recent advances in psychological interventions. In this regard, we discuss here: 1) five common techiniques of the cognitive-behavioural approach (relaxation, operant, cognitive, social training and coping); 2) the operant activities training programme; 3) a clinical case ilustrating the application of this programme.