Background & Aims
Cognitive Functional Therapy (CFT) is a promising approach for chronic non specific low back pain and several randomized controlled trials showed that it can be helpful for reducing pain and disability. It is a biopsychosocial approach that deals with the multidimensional impact in quality of life of chronic patients. Despite the moderate existing evidence, CFT still was not applied to other types of chronic painful syndromes.
Methods
This is a case series regarding the use of CFT in the evaluation, treatment and coaching of three different patients that presented, respectively, complex regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia and tension type headache. The patients were submitted to all four main components of the CFT approach: making sense of pain, controlled gradual exposure, lifestyle changes and coaching towards self-management including flare-ups.
Results
Patients received an individualized exercise program and were monitored remotely, were followed by a one year period and also received a booster session. The outcomes measured were pain intensity, disability, quality of life and function. The following questionnaires were used as measurement tools: Numerical Pain Scale, 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), Patient Specific Functional Scale (PSFS) and the brief psychosocial questionnaire.
Conclusions
Although the diagnoses are very different, all the three patients that were treated by CFT approach presented improvement of the pain intensity and restored function. These results corroborate with the idea that more research involving CFT should be carried out within different populations in order to test its effectiveness.
References
O’SULLIVAN, P. B. et al. Cognitive Functional Therapy: An Integrated Behavioral Approach for the Targeted Management of Disabling Low Back Pain. Physical Therapy, v. 98, n. 5, p. 408, 1 maio 2018.
FERNANDEZ, J.; LUNKES, L. C.; MEZIAT-FILHO, N. Biopsychosocial approaches to telerehabilitation for chronic primary musculoskeletal pain: A real possibility for physical therapists, that is here to stay. Brazilian journal of physical therapy, v. 26, n. 1, 1 jan. 2022a.
Smart KM, Ferraro MC, Wand BM, O’Connell NE. Physiotherapy for pain and disability in adults with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) types I and II. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2022 May 17;5(5):CD010853. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD010853.pub3. PMID: 35579382; PMCID: PMC9112661.
Repiso-Guardeño A, Moreno-Morales N, Armenta-Pendón MA, Rodríguez-Martínez MDC, Pino-Lozano R, Armenta-Peinado JA. Physical Therapy in Tension-Type Headache: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Mar 2;20(5):4466. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20054466. PMID: 36901475; PMCID: PMC10001815.
Araújo FM, DeSantana JM. Physical therapy modalities for treating fibromyalgia. F1000Res. 2019 Nov 29;8:F1000 Faculty Rev-2030. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.17176.1. PMID: 32047594; PMCID: PMC6979469.
Presenting Author
Jessica Fernandez
Poster Authors
Jessica Fernandez
PhD
UNISUAM
Lead Author
Topics
- Specific Pain Conditions/Pain in Specific Populations: Nociplastic and chronic widespread pain