Whether you have a back injury due to an event like car accident, continued trauma, degenerative disc disorder, or any other back ailment, one thing is certain – chronic back pain can lead to a decreased quality of life. As a result, many people seek out the newest and most effective pain management techniques to help alleviate their pain and improve their daily lives.

One of the breakthrough treatments for back pain that shows promise is Pain Reprocessing Therapy, or PRT. PRT is based on the idea that the brain has the power to change itself, and people have the power to determine how they interact with their pain. But what exactly is Pain Reprocessing Therapy? And how does it work?

Pain Reprocessing Therapy – Talk Therapy for Pain

Most people understand therapy as a way to address emotional or psychological pain. PRT isn’t too far off! PRT is a type of talk therapy designed specifically to help manage chronic pain. This type of therapy combines several different types of therapy, primarily cognitive behavioral therapy that is similarly used in panic disorder.

During PRT, a therapist might ask questions such as:

• How does the pain feel?
• What color does the pain evoke?
• Where does the pain sit in your body?
• What triggers or increases the pain?
• Tell me about your pain history?

The goal of these questions is to help patients identify their thoughts and emotions surrounding their pain. By understanding how they think and feel about their pain, patients can learn to better manage it, change their perception of pain, and slowly but surely start expanding their world that was once limited by chronic pain.

How Long Until I See Results?

The great thing about PRT is that it takes little time to see results. In fact, a 2021 study on PRT conducted on 150 participants showed that it only took 4 weeks of 2, 1-hour-long weekly PRT sessions with a therapist to see results.

This study showed that roughly 98% of people saw improvements, and 66% were nearly pain free! These results were largely unchanged after a 1-year-follow-up, showing just how effective PRT can be for chronic pain patients.

Anxiety and Pain – The Connection

To understand why PRT is as effective as it is, it’s important to understand how anxiety and pain tie together. Anxiety is one of the most common mental health conditions, but also highly treatable. Similarly, pain is incredibly common and is closely tied with similar emotions like fear, self-limiting behavior, and reinforcement.

For instance, let’s say someone suffers from chronic lower back pain due to a sports injury. After years of physical therapy and relapses in pain, they continue to doubt that they will ever get better. In addition, this person might believe that certain positions, exercises, or activities will only increase their pain.

These negative thoughts and beliefs not only contribute to increased anxiety, but also reinforce the fear of movement leading to further self-limiting behavior. This entire process is known as the “fear-avoidance cycle” and is a common pattern among chronic pain patients.

How PRT Can Help

PRT can help break the fear-avoidance cycle by addressing negative thoughts and beliefs associated with pain. The more people learn that their pain is not going to harm them anymore than it already has, or that it is simply a signal that poses no threat, the easier it becomes to engage in activities that previously caused fear.

By gradually increasing exposure to these feared activities and reducing avoidance behaviors, PRT can help patients overcome their pain-related anxiety and ultimately reduce their pain levels. In addition, past studies on interoceptive exposure, which is the fundamental basis of PRT, showed that it can help reduce the “Threat value” of chronic pain.

Research suggests that PRT is not only effective in reducing pain levels, but also has a physiological effect on the brain. Part of the PRT 2021 study showed that areas of the brain that normally evoked pain signals showed a reduced response after participating in PRT.

Key Takeaways

For people living with chronic pain, it can feel like a never-ending cycle of fear, avoidance, and increased pain. However, PRT offers a solution to break this cycle by teaching people that pain is only in the brain, and not a threat to the body.

If you’re looking for non-invasive and drug-free ways to manage chronic pain, PRT may be a promising option. It can help not only manage pain, but completely eliminate it through groundbreaking therapy and neuroscience. PRT might just be the key to finally finding relief from chronic pain.