GROUP THERAPY FOR THE TREATMENT OF #FIBROMYALGIA AND CHRONIC #PAIN…

Group Therapy for the treatment of #fibromyalgia and chronic #pain.

You read something new every day on treatments for #fibromyalgia and chronic #pain, but now they are saying that group therapy can help pain sufferers. A trial published in the Lancet, revealed that after only six sessions of group therapy, it showed patients still found improvements a year later.

All patients who took part in the study were given advice about remaining active, avoiding bed rest and taking pain medication, and felt more positive about being able to deal with their pain and less fearful about their situation. The study, led by Professor Sarah Lamb at the University of Warwick, found: “Compared with advice alone, advice plus cognitive behavioural intervention was associated with significant benefits in nearly all outcomes. This trial shows that a bespoke cognitive behavioural intervention package, Best, is effective in managing subacute and chronic low-back pain in primary care.”

The treatment also compared favourably with other ways of combating back #pain, such as acupuncture and teaching correct posture. Dr Laxmaiah Manchikanti, from the Pain Management Centre of Paducah, in Kentucky in the US, said the study “showed rather impressive results”. The book ‘The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy’ by Irvin Yalom and Molyn Leszcz is a great book to help you understand what is behind group therapy. It presents the most recent developments in the field, drawing on nearly a decade of new research as well as the writers’ clinical wisdom and expertise. Hailed by Jerome Frank as “the best book that exists on the subject,” Irvin D. Yalom’s The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy has been the standard text in the field for decades.

The charity MIND also has lots of details on group therapy treatments.

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