Changes in Pain Catastrophizing and Fear-Avoidance Beliefs as Mediators of Early Physical Therapy on Disability and Pain in Acute Low-Back Pain: A Secondary Analysis of a Clinical Trial.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The Fear-Avoidance Model (FAM) of chronic pain posits that pain catastrophizing and fear-avoidance beliefs are prognostic for disability and chronicity. In acute low-back pain, early physical therapy (PT) is effective in reducing disability in some patients. How early PT impacts short- and long-term changes in disability for patients with acute pain is unknown. Based on the FAM, we hypothesized that early reductions in pain catastrophizing and fear-avoidance beliefs would mediate early PT's effect on changes in disability (primary outcome) and pain intensity (secondary outcome) over 3 months and 1 year.

Subjects

Participants were 204 patients with low-back pain of <16 days duration, who enrolled in a clinical trial (NCT01726803) comparing early PT sessions or usual

SUBMITTER: Sisco-Taylor BL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9157170 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature