Trial reportJournal of psychosomatic research2016
The effects of a novel psychological attribution and emotional awareness and expression therapy for chronic musculoskeletal pain: A preliminary, uncontrolled trial.
Trial report in Journal of psychosomatic research, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The utility of coping through emotional approach: A meta-analysis.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Emotion regulation in patients with somatic symptom and related disorders: A systematic review.PloS one · 2019Pooled it
- Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy vs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain in Older Veterans: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Improvements in mindfulness, interoceptive and emotional awareness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal emotion management following completion of an online emotional skills training program.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2024Trial
- Virtual Human-Delivered Interviews for Patients With Chronic Pain: Feasibility, Acceptability, and a Pilot Randomized Trial of Standard Medical, Psychosocial, and Educational Interviews.Psychosomatic medicine · 2023Trial
- The Effects of a Life Stress Emotional Awareness and Expression Interview for Women with Chronic Urogenital Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2019Trial
- A life-stress, emotional awareness, and expression interview for primary care patients with medically unexplained symptoms: A randomized controlled trial.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2018Trial
- Emotional awareness and expression training improves irritable bowel syndrome: A randomized controlled trial.Neurogastroenterology and motility · 2017Trial
- Trial
- Ambivalence over emotional expression and perceived social constraints as moderators of relaxation training and emotional awareness and expression training for irritable bowel syndrome.General hospital psychiatryTrial
- Temporal pathways between alexithymia, psychological distress, and pain: An autoregressive mediation analysis.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Patient Perspectives on the Process and Outcome of Group Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy for Chronic Pain.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2026Article
- Let's talk about pain: A mixed methods exploration of patients' pain knowledge and preferred ways to introduce the biopsychosocial model of pain.Canadian journal of pain = Revue canadienne de la douleur · 2026Article
- Exploring Emotional Conflicts and Pain Experience in Patients with Non-Specific Chronic Neck Pain: A Qualitative Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Alexithymia: Toward an Experimental, Processual Affective Science with Effective Interventions.Annual review of psychology · 2025Review
- Design of a Health Education Program to Manage Chronic Neck Pain: Protocol for a Development Study.JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- Psychophysiologic symptom relief therapy for chronic back pain: hypothesis and trial rationale.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Emotional Awareness and Expression Interview: Examining Interview Content and Patient Experiences in Two Medical Samples.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2023Article
- Determining Profiles of Pain-Specific and General Emotion Regulation Skills and Their Relation to 12-Month Outcomes Among People With Chronic Pain.The journal of pain · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveCurrent psychological and behavioral therapies for chronic musculoskeletal pain only modestly reduce pain, disability, and distress. These limited effects may be due to the failure of current therapies: a) to help patients learn that their pain is influenced primarily by central nervous system psychological processes; and b) to enhance awareness and expression of emotions related to psychological trauma or conflict.
methodsWe developed and conducted a preliminary, uncontrolled test of a novel psychological attribution and emotional awareness and expression therapy that involves an initial individual consultation followed by 4 group sessions. A series of 72 patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain had the intervention and were assessed at baseline, post-treatment, and 6-month follow-up.
resultsParticipation and satisfaction were high and attrition was low. Intent-to-treat analyses found significant improvements in hypothesized change processes: psychological attributions for pain, emotional awareness, emotional approach coping, and alexithymia. Pain, interference, depression, and distress showed large effect size improvements at post-treatment, which were maintained or even enhanced at 6 months. Approximately two-thirds of the patients improved at least 30% in pain and other outcomes, and one-third of the patients improved 70%. Changes in attribution and emotional processes predicted outcomes. Higher baseline depressive symptoms predicted greater improvements, and outcomes were comparable for patients with widespread vs. localized pain.
conclusionThis novel intervention may lead to greater benefits than available psychological interventions for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain, but needs controlled testing.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.