The Effectiveness of Cognitive – Behavioral Group Therapy On Pain Perception And Pain Severity Among Patients With Chronic Neuropathic Pain

The experience of pain consists of two sensory and emotional dimensions. The sensory dimension of pain indicates pain severity and the emotional dimension indicates pain perception. Since cognitive–behavioral therapy is an evidence-based treatment and emphasizes on the correction of dysfunctional thought processes and changing the maladaptive behaviors, this study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive – behavioral group therapy on pain perception and pain severity among patients with chronic neuropathic pain. This quasi-randomized trial was performed among 30 patients with chronic neuropathy referring to Rouhani Hospital in Babol in two groups of case and control (15 patients in each group). Cognitive – behavioral group therapy was performed in ten 120-minute sessions, held once a week for the experimental group. Participants were examined before the experiment and 45 days after the sessions, and the perception of pain was evaluated by the components of belief in pain permanence, self-blame, belief in pain constancy, mysteriousness of pain, and pain severity. The attainable score in The Pain Beliefs and Perceptions Inventory was 30 to -30, and in The West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory was 0 to 6. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups in the total score of pain perception (-8.87±7.40 vs. 1.6±93.30) (p=0.001), and the subscales of belief in pain permanence (-4.13±1.76 vs. 0.93±3.30) (p=0.04), belief in pain constancy (0.80±3.16 vs. -2.13±3.50) (p=0.04), mysteriousness of pain (-2.73±3.67 vs. 1.33±3.95) (p=0.003), and pain severity (2.19±1.28 vs. 3.64±1.27) (p=0.003). The present study showed that cognitive–behavioral group therapy could be an effective intervention for reducing the pain perception and pain severity in patients with chronic neuropathic pain.