The short-term effects of neuroscience pain education on quality of life in patients with chronic low back pain: A single-blinded randomized controlled trial

Neuroscience Pain Education (NPE) has become a promising approach in the treatment of chronic low back pain (CLBP). The aim of this study was to investigate the short-term effects NPE in patients with CLBP treated with manual therapy. This randomized controlled study was conducted at Yoncali Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Hospital, Turkey. Inclusion criteria were: age over 18 years, presenting with a primary complaint of LBP least 6 months, and being fluent in Turkish. Exclusion criteria included: prior spinal surgery, severe osteoporosis, cauda equina syndrome, lumbar stenosis, spinal fracture, malignancies, any systemic inflammatory disease other than LBP, and illiteracy. Thirty-five patients were randomized into two groups. The intervention group was given NPE and the control group was given traditional patient education (TPE) in addition four weeks spinal manual therapy sessions. Outcome measures were the Short Form-36 (SF-36) quality of life (QoL) questionnaire and the Numeric Pain Rating Scale for low back pain measured before and after treatment. Both intervention and control group had significant effects on pain and quality of life. Between-group comparisons revealed a significant difference in pain severity (p = 0.01) and SF-36 physical function subscale (p = 0.04) in favor of the NPE group. This study showed that manual therapy with pain specific education is an effective tool to improve QoL in patients with CLBP by reducing pain in the short term. Therefore, combining manual therapy with neuroscience pain education can be a promising option to increase QoL in patients with CLBP.