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Education about pain and experience with cognitive-based interventions do not reduce healthcare professionals’ chronic pain
Asaf Weisman et al. PeerJ. May 2025
ABSTRACT - This cross-sectional study investigated whether healthcare professionals (HCPs) with chronic pain (HCPs+CP) who are familiar with pain neuroscience education (PNE) and cognitive-based interventions (such as CBT, ACT, and mindfulness) experience less pain and improved quality of life. An anonymous online questionnaire was distributed to 550 HCPs (319 healthy, 231 with chronic pain) internationally. The results showed that pain intensity did not significantly differ between HCPs+CP with primary versus secondary chronic pain, nor did it negatively correlate with their knowledge or experience with cognitive-based interventions. While HCPs+CP initially showed slightly lower quality of life scores than healthy HCPs, these differences became non-significant when only those familiar with the interventions were compared. Notably, among healthy HCPs who had recovered from chronic pain, only 11% attributed their recovery to cognitive-based interventions, with most citing physical therapy or spontaneous recovery. The study concludes that, for HCPs with chronic pain, education about pain and experience with cognitive-based interventions do not correlate with reduced pain intensity, though quality of life may be comparable to healthy colleagues, challenging current theoretical models for these interventions.
EDITOR'S COMMENT - This is a very unique angle to explore the efficacy of therapeutic pain neuroscience education. The results fit with what I see clinically - it can improve function but has no effect on pain intensity. Patients seek an understanding of why they are sore, but this is usually because there is the implication (often misguided) that if they know the reason then it can be "fixed." Pain neuroscience education gives an explanation but it doesn't provide a way forward for meaningfully reducing pain.
