September 5 th – 8 th 2013 Nottingham Conference Centre, United Kingdom www.nspine.co.uk

1. September 5th – 8th 2013 Nottingham Conference Centre, United Kingdom www.nspine.co.uk

2. Using CBT To Treat Chronic Pain Kate Feenan Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist

3. Agenda • Understanding and Treating Chronic Pain • Chronic pain and the importance of psychosocial factors • Inadequacies of the medical model • An evidence-based bio psychosocial model and CBT approach • What is CBT? • Key Characteristics of CBT • Using CBT to Manage Pain - Five Points for Intervention

4. Definition of pain “An unpleasant emotional and sensory experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (IASP, 1994)

5. What is Chronic Pain?PAIN 1 and PAIN 2

6. Pain Distress & Discomfort Poor Functioning Unwillingness Inflexibility Avoidance Chronic Pain and SufferingPAIN 2

7. Impact Of Chronic Pain Significant psychosocial problems • Depression, panic, anxiety • Fears about the future • Decreased pleasure in everyday activities • Helplessness, self-esteem losses • Impaired physical functioning • Reduced frequency and quality of socialisation • Significant role changes with family and work systems • Side effects of treatment and medication • Tremendous cost to society (human & economic)

8. Medical Model - Making Things Worse? • It results in no cure or little pain relief, promotes fear avoidance behaviour and physical deconditioning which in turn contributes to increased pain • Focuses the patient on seeking a diagnosis, cure and pain relief and reinforces unrealistic treatment expectations • Adds to anxiety, fear about any unknown conditions, frustration, low mood and a sense of lack of control, helplessness and hopelessness • Encourages ineffective and high health care usage (e.g. multiple investigations with no clear benefit) • Consumes time and effort and can lead to postponement effective pain management and life

9. Opinion • “Back pain is a 20th century medical disaster” (Waddell, 2000) • ……………………………… “chronic pain patients would benefit more from having no medical treatment at all”. Van Tulder, Koes and Bouter (1995)

10. Yellow Flags Psychosocial Risk Factors/Obstacles to Recovery A = Attitudes: pain is harmful, uncontrollable, one is disabled, passive attitude to rehab B = Behaviours: fear avoidance, extended rest C =Compensation: Lack of financial incentive to return to work, history of sick leave D =Diagnosis and Treatment: health professionals sanctioning disability, expecting fix, conflicting explanations, over utilisation of h/care E =Emotions: Fear, anxiety, depression, useless F =Family: Solicitous spouse, over protective partner W =Work: Job dissatisfaction, belief that work is harmful

11. Culture Social Interactions The Sick Role Illness Behaviour Beliefs, Coping, Emotions, Distress Neurophysiology Physiologic Dysfunction (Tissue Damage?) The Biopsychosocial ModelEngel (1977), Wadell (1987) & (2002),& Turk et al. (1988) SOCIAL PSYCHO BIO

12. Psychological therapies for chronic pain • Behavioural – New ways of doing • Cognitive Behavioural- New ways of thinking • Mindfulness and Acceptance- New ways of being

13. Principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Chronic Pain AIM: To help patient acquire cognitive and behavioural skills to overcome obstacles to living well with chronic pain • Sound therapeutic alliance • Reconceptualise pain • Identify realistic goals • Present focus and structured • Identify obstructive factors/thinking errors • Reinforce progress acknowledging efforts and achievements in self/activity management

14. Central Tenent of CBT “Men are disturbed not by things, but the views they take of them” Epitecus

15. Cognitive Model of emotional disorders (Beck 1967)3 levels of thinking Early life experiences 1. Development of schema, basic beliefs and Dysfunctional assumptions (rules) Triggers/cues Critical incident 2. Activation of schema, core beliefs and dysfunctional assumptions 3. Negative Automatic thoughts Emotions Behaviours Physiological responses

16. The Maintenance cycle Environment Negative Automatic Thought Physical Feeling Behaviour

17. Common pitfalls in human thought • Catastrophising – turning mole hills into mountains • Overgeneralising – Drawing global conclusions • Filtering – Only acknowledging information that fits with belief • Labelling – Rigid references ‘I’m a failure’ • Black and white – all or nothing • Personalising- interpreting events as being personally related • Fortune telling – predicting outcomes • Disqualifying the positive– negative observational bias, selective perception • Emotional reasoning – Feelings as facts

18. The maintenance cycle • Thoughts • – there is something seriously wrong • I cant go on like this • hurt = harm • Its not my fault Environment Social deprivation Benefit dependence Marital discord Unhelpful employers litigation Feeling Fear Anxiety Hopeless Anger Physical Deconditioned Pain Tired IBS Obesity Behaviour Avoidant/inactive Helpless Dependent Blame

19. Defining characteristics of CBT Interventions Cognitive interventions Use of ‘socratic’ questioning and ‘guided discovery’ • Spotting errors in thinking • Modifying thinking errors • Identifying alternative perspectives Moving from extreme and unhelpful ways of seeing things to a more helpful and balanced way Behavioural experiments • Activity scheduling, graded task assignment – pacing, exposure Establishing new ways of perceiving and acting

20. In SummaryKey Characteristics of CBT • Assumes that emotion and behaviour are largely determined by the way the individual interprets the world and events • Aims to help patients see the relationship between thinking, feeling and behaviour, together with their joint consequences. • Evidence based • Empathic, active and collaborative • Structured, focused and goal orientated • Emphasis on the present • Is educative • Self help model

21. Thank youAny Questions?