Overview
What is Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy?
It consists of methods used for training patients to evaluate and change maladaptive responses to chronic pain by exploring patients thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour and encouraging new coping skills.
Treatment
How does it work?
Persistent pain is not simply a biological phenomenon. It has additional detrimental effects on the way we think, feel, behave and interact with others. As such, CBT can help to make sense of these overwhelming problems by breaking them down to smaller parts. These parts include: a Situation (such as an event, a problem or difficult situation) from which can follow Thoughts, Emotions, Physical Feelings and Action.
What does it Involved?
CBT in our centre is done as a group with 10 –12 participants. Sessions are held on a daily basis for 2 weeks. A multidisciplinary team is involved and comprises of nurses, doctors, physiotherapists and psychologists.
Components of CBT include:
- Education
- Goal directed therapy
- Enhancing self-management and coping skills.
- Exercise and fitness training
- Behavioural change
- Cognitive therapy (attention management, cognitive restructuring, problem solving)
- Homework and diary keeping
How Effective is CBT?
Multidisciplinary CBT has been established practice for over 30 years. The clinical effectiveness of the approach has been demonstrated in several hundred studies with a wide range of pain syndromes such as headaches, low back pain, fibromyalgia etc.
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