Abstract
Background
The potential clinical benefits of Cognitive bias modification (CBM) have been demonstrated in the treatment of adults with chronic pain. However, there is a lack of comprehensive systematic evaluations on this topic to conclusively demonstrate its combined effects. The aim of this review is to evaluate the effectiveness of CBM in patients with chronic pain in order to provide more comprehensive and in-depth insights.
Methods
From database creation to 14 April 2024, we searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Library for randomised controlled trials (RCT) using CBM to treat patients with chronic pain. Two reviewers independently screened the studies, extracted data and evaluated quality. Using Stata 17.0, we conducted a meta-analysis to assess the combined outcomes of interest.
Results
A total of 6663 studies were reviewed, yielding 7 RCTs with 328 chronic pain patients meeting criteria.Meta-analysis revealed that CBM did not significantly improve pain intensity (SMD = −0.05; 95% CI = [−0.32, 0.23]; p = 0.925), anxiety (SMD = 0.06; 95% CI = [−0.19, 0.30]; p = 0.658) and depression (SMD = 0.02; 95% CI = [−0.21, 0.25]; p = 0.862). However, qualitative analyses suggested a moderate effect of CBM on negative emotions, specifically fear of pain and pain catastrophizing.
Conclusions
Although the meta-analysis showed that CBM is ineffective in managing chronic pain, it still holds potential. Future efforts should focus on exploring effective implementation methods of CBM tailored to the specific characteristics of chronic pain groups, in order to conduct larger-scale and higher-quality studies.
