The Effect of Therapeutic Neuroscience Education on Chronic Low Back Pain

Physiotherapy Combined With Therapeutic Neuroscience Education Versus Physiotherapy Alone for Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Ongoing fear and catastrophization in people with chronic low back pain (CLBP) causes increased pain, disability and kinesiophobia, and decreased endurance of trunk muscles. Nowadays, recurrent low back pain complaints are increasing day by day. Besides the use of electrophysical agents and exercise in the treatment of chronic low back pain, education methods used to reduce the negative effects of psychosocial factors are important for healing. Although there were studies about the combination of Therapeutic Neuroscience Education (TNE) with exercise in CLBP, there are no studies that combine electrophysical agents, exercise and TNE methods in the literature. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate whether TNE combined with physiotherapy consisting of electrophysical modalities and home program exercise is superior to only physiotherapy in patients with CLBP.

The experimental group received a three-week program consisting of 15 sessions of physiotherapy and six sessions of therapeutic neuroscience education.

Hot-pack, ultrasound, trancutaneus nerve electrical stimulation (TENS) and home program exercises were applied or given to the individuals within the physiotherapy program. In addition to physiotherapy, therapeutic neuroscience education were applied to experimental group. One-to-one speech sessions focusing on pain neurophysiology were organized twice a week for three weeks. Each session lasted 40 minutes. The Therapeutic neuroscience education program included nociception, ion channel neurophysiology, central and peripheral sensitization, methods to help reduce sensitization, neuroplasticity, psychosocial factors involved in the transition from acute pain to chronic pain and behavioral, cognitive responses to pain.

Hot-pack, ultrasound, trancutaneus nerve electrical stimulation (TENS) and home program exercises were applied or given to the individuals within the physiotherapy program.

Visual Analogue Scale assessed pain severity. Visual Analog Scale is a straight horizontal line of fixed length, usually 100 mm. The ends are defined as the extreme limits of pain. hence the left end is usually labeled 'no pain', and the right end usually labeled 'extreme pain'. The score is determined by measuring the distance (mm) on the 10-cm line between the "no pain" anchor and the patient's mark by using a ruler. The scale is provided a range of scores from 0-100. High score indicates a high level of pain.

Tampa Kinesiophobia Scale (TKS) evaluated kinesiophobia. TKS is a questionnaire evaluating kinesiophobia due to low back pain. The TKS questionnaire contained 17 items that assessed fear-related concepts. Each item has a four-point Likert scale with scoring options tiered from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree" and a total score ranging from 17 to 68. Higher scores represented stronger levels of fear avoidance behavior.

Roland Morris Index (RMI) consists of 24 items related to physical functions. The questionnaire is a list of 24 statements relating to activities and the impairments of pain, appetite, mood, and sleep. A total score of the questionnaire range from 0 to 24 and a higher score indicate more severe disability.

Inclusion Criteria: The inclusion criteria were: aged between 18-60 years to have CLBP ˃ 3 months duration to have independent walking ability to be literate in Turkish. Exclusion Criteria: to have vertebral compression fractures to have transitional vertebrae to have an underlying tumoral, rheumatologic or inflammatory disease to have trauma, surgical history to be pregnant or less than six months postpartum period

Walti P, Kool J, Luomajoki H. Short-term effect on pain and function of neurophysiological education and sensorimotor retraining compared to usual physiotherapy in patients with chronic or recurrent non-specific low back pain, a pilot randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2015 Apr 10;16:83. doi: 10.1186/s12891-015-0533-2.