The following is a summary of “Pain neuroscience education for reducing pain and kinesiophobia in patients with chronic neck pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials,” published in the September 2023 issue of Pain by Lin et al.

Neck pain lasting longer than 12 weeks is known as chronic neck pain (CNP). The effectiveness of pain neuroscience education (PNE), a non-pharmacological intervention for CNP, is still unknown. Researchers performed a retrospective study to assess the effectiveness of PNE in treating CNP.

They conducted a comprehensive search of electronic databases (February 2023) to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining the impact of PNE on CNP. The primary outcome under consideration was the alteration in pain intensity, while the secondary work focused on the enhancement in kinesiophobia, measured with Hedges’ g. Eligible articles underwent independent scrutiny, data extraction, and quality assessment by two authors. Data pooling was accomplished using a random-effects model.

The results showed that 7 RCTs, with 479 subjects, exhibited a significant reduction in pain intensity with PNE (Hedges’ g = −0.730, 95% CI = −1.340 to −0.119, P=0.019, I superscript – ² = 89.288%). Subgroup analysis showed that PNE significantly reduced pain in adults but not adolescents. PNE also reduced kinesiophobia in 4 of the 7 RCTs (Hedges’ g = −0.444, 95% CI = −0.735 to −0.154, P=0.003, I superscript – ² = 36.822%). Meta-regression analysis indicated that longer intervention durations contributed to greater pain reduction. No adverse events were reported.

They concluded that PNE effectively reduced pain and kinesiophobia in patients with CNP, with longer duration and adult age, leading to greater pain reduction.

Source: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejp.2182