John W Burns

2 papers in the library · 12 citations · publishing 2024-2025

Papers

The effects of telehealth-delivered mindfulness meditation, cognitive therapy, and behavioral activation for chronic low back pain: a randomized clinical trial.

BMC Medicine April 12, 2024 Melissa A Day, Marcia A Ciol, M Elena Mendoza et al. 9 citations

Group, videoconference-delivered cognitive therapy, behavioral activation, and mindfulness meditation all produced medium-to-large reductions in pain interference for adults with chronic low back pain, with gains maintained at 3- and 6-month follow-ups. The three treatments showed similar effectiveness, with no significant differences between them except that behavioral activation improved sleep disturbance more than mindfulness meditation from pre- to post-treatment. Effect sizes for secondary outcomes were generally small to medium across all conditions. These findings indicate that telehealth-delivered psychological treatments are effective for chronic low back pain and can expand access to evidence-based care.

DOI: 10.1186/s12916-024-03383-2 Full text Psychological treatment Randomized clinical trial Telehealth

Treatment mechanism and outcome decoupling effects in cognitive therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and behavior therapy for chronic pain.

Pain February 1, 2025 James Gerhart, John W Burns, Beverly E Thorn et al. 3 citations

For chronic low back pain, cognitive therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and behavior therapy all appear to work by progressively weakening the link between pain-related thoughts or pain spikes and later outcomes, rather than by directly changing those mechanisms. In a study of 521 people, associations between treatment mechanism variables and outcomes were strong early in treatment but became nonsignificant by the final third. This decoupling effect was similar across the three active treatments but did not occur in treatment as usual. The findings suggest that by midtreatment, participants may learn that maladaptive thoughts or pain increases need not worsen their subsequent experience.

DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003374 Full text