Could interventions that focus on emotions provide relief for clients who suffer from chronic back pain?

That’s the idea behind Psychophysiologic System Relief Therapy (PSRT). And research is beginning to emerge that supports this approach as an effective, evidence-based treatment for chronic pain.

But what exactly is it?

PSRT, a term coined by Michael Donnino, MD, is a combination of two of the primary therapies that have been showing the most promise in treating chronic pain that has no clear physical cause: Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET).

Both approaches target the stress, emotions, and learned responses in the brain that can generate pain.

Drawing on this, Dr, Donnino and his colleagues at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (affiliated with Harvard University) developed the PSRT treatment protocol to include psychoeducation about pain and its psychological contributors. It also involves desensitization to conditioned pain responses, emotional expression techniques, and mindfulness training.

To evaluate its effectiveness, Dr. Donnino and his colleagues conducted a pilot randomized control trial.

They designed the study to evaluate PSRT’s potential to reduce disability, the degree to which pain was interfering with a participant’s daily life, and pain-related anxiety in adults with chronic back pain.

Researchers randomized 35 participants into three groups. The first group participated in a 12-week PSRT program. The second engaged in an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention. And the third group received standard pain relief care.

Starting at baseline and continuing at intervals of 4, 8, 13, and 26 weeks, participants completed a questionnaire designed to assess how much their back pain was interfering with their daily functioning.

So, what did the findings show?

Participants who received PSRT reported significantly greater reductions in disability than those in the MBSR and usual care groups. In addition, the PSRT intervention group described significant reductions in the degree to which pain interfered with their daily lives.

Not only that, but the PSRT group also reflected significant reductions in pain-related anxiety.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that this was a pilot study made up of a small sample. I’d be interested to see a larger randomized trial confirming similar results.

Even so, these results should be encouraging for clients who suffer from chronic pain, and for practitioners who work with them.

And later this week, we’ll be hosting a live workshop with Howard Schubiner, MD, that takes a deep dive into Emotional Expression and Awareness Therapy (EAET) — one of the foundational building blocks of PSRT.

You can find out more about Howard’s upcoming workshop here.

And, if you’re interested in reading the PSRT study on your own, you can find it right here.

But now I’d like to hear from you: how might you integrate approaches like these in your work with clients? Please leave a comment below.