Effectiveness of group cognitive- behavioral therapy on pain coping strategies and pain self- efficacy in patients with chronic neuropathic pain

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a treatment method based on evidence that emphasis on inefficient thoughts correction and maladaptive behavioral change. The objective was to investigate the effectiveness of CBT on perception and pain intensity in patients with chronic neuropathic pain. This research of quasi-experimental was performed among 30 chronic neuropathic patients who referred to Rohani hospital of Babol (Iran) in two groups of 15 based on pretest- posttest design. The CBT was performed for the experimental group in 10 sessions, each week 1 session of 120 minutes. Participants were re-evaluated 45 days after the sessions, and pain coping strategies was evaluated according to   diverting attention, reinterpretation of pain, catastrophizing, ignore of pain, prayer-hope, self-statement, increasing pain behaviour subscales and pain self-efficacy was also evaluated. Relatively, coping strategies questionnaire (Rosenstiel and Keefe) and pain self-efficacy questionnaire (Nicholas) were used in pretest, posttest and follow up in both experimental and control groups. This study showed that there was a significant difference between the subscales of pain coping strategies in the experimental and control groups in diverting attention (P<0.001), reinterpretation of pain (P<0.001), ignore of pain (P=0.02), self-statement (P=0.04), increasing of pain behaviour (P<0.001) and self-efficacy (P=0.004), but there was not a significant difference between the subscales of pain coping strategies in catastrophizing (P>0.05) and prayer-hope (P>0.05). The present study showed the CBT could be considered as an effective intervention on pain coping strategies and pain self-efficacy in patients with chronic neuropathic pain