Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T10:57:45.946Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chronic Pain in Older Adults: A Controlled Pilot Trial of a Brief Cognitive-Behavioural Group Treatment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2011

Gerhard Andersson ,
Carina Johansson ,
Annette Nordlander  and
Gordon J. G. Asmundson
Gerhard Andersson*
Affiliation:
Linköping University, and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Carina Johansson
Affiliation:
Uppsala University, Sweden
Annette Nordlander
Affiliation:
Uppsala University, Sweden
Gordon J. G. Asmundson
Affiliation:
University of Regina, Canada
*
Reprint requests to Gerhard Andersson, Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden. E-mail: gerhard.andersson@liu.se
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Chronic pain is a common condition among older adults. While cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) has been tested in numerous studies on adults and children there are fewer studies on older persons. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of a six-session CBT group treatment for older persons with chronic pain. As a secondary aim we investigated whether treatment credibility was associated with outcome. Method: We included 21 persons (mean age = 72.0 years) who were randomly allocated to either a waitlist condition or treatment consisting of applied relaxation, with the addition of problem solving, assertiveness, communication strategies, sleep management, and relapse prevention. Results: Few statistically significant effects were found on measures of pain, mood, anxiety, and quality of life; however, a significant treatment effect with a between group effect size of d = 1.0 was observed with respect to perceived ability to function despite the discomfort of pain. Conclusion: The study provides some preliminary support for the use of group-based CBT with a focus on applied relaxation for older adults with chronic pain.

Keywords

Older adultschronic painapplied relaxationgroup treatment
Type
Brief Clinical Reports
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , March 2012 , pp. 239 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bergström, G., Jensen, I. B., Bodin, L., Linton, S. J., Nygren, Å. L. and Carlsson, S. G. (1998). Reliability and factor structure of the Multidimensional Pain Inventory – Swedish Language Version (MPI-S). Pain, 75, 101–110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borkovec, T. D. and Nau, S. D. (1972). Credibility of analogue therapy rationales. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 3, 257–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frisch, M. B., Cornell, J., Villanueva, M. and Retzlaff, P. J. (1992). Clinical validation of the Quality of Life Inventory: a measure of life satisfaction for use in treatment planning and outcome assessment. Psychological Assessment, 4, 95–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, I. B. and Linton, S. J. (1993). Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ): reliability of the version of the CSQ. Scandinavian Journal of Behaviour Therapy, 22, 139–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lisspers, J., Nygren, A. and Söderman, E. (1997). Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD): some psychometric data for Swedish sample. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 96, 281–286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reiss, S., Peterson, R. A., Gurksy, D. M. and McNally, R. J. (1986). Anxiety sensitivity, anxiety frequency and the prediction of fearfulness. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, J. F., Ahern, D. K. and Follick, M. J. (1988). Chronic pain and functional impairment: assessing beliefs about their relationship. Archives of Physical and Medical Rehabilitation, 69, 579–582.Google ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.