Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28859685›Full record

SynthesisBMC psychology2017

An umbrella review of the literature on the effectiveness of psychological interventions for pain reduction.

Georgios Markozannes, Eleni Aretouli, Evangelia Rintou, Elena Dragioti, Dimitrios Damigos, Evangelia Ntzani, Evangelos Evangelou, Konstantinos K Tsilidis

Open access · goldAbstract readSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in BMC psychology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed, 8 pooled it
2.5field-weighted citation impact, top 10% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 69 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Guideline
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Pooled it
  6. Pooled it
  7. Pooled it
  8. Pooled it
  9. Trial
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. The clinician's guide to prevention and treatment of osteoporosis.Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2022
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Review
  18. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Georgios MarkozannesDepartment of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, University Campus, 45110, Ioannina, Greece. gmarkoz@cc.uoi.gr.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8481-579X
Eleni AretouliLab of Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Evangelia RintouDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, University Campus, 45110, Ioannina, Greece.
Elena DragiotiDepartment of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, University Campus, 45110, Ioannina, Greece.
Dimitrios DamigosDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, University Campus, 45110, Ioannina, Greece.
Evangelia NtzaniDepartment of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, University Campus, 45110, Ioannina, Greece.
Evangelos EvangelouDepartment of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, University Campus, 45110, Ioannina, Greece.
Konstantinos K TsilidisDepartment of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, University Campus, 45110, Ioannina, Greece.
University of Ioannina · GRAristotle University of Thessaloniki · GRRhode Island Department of Health · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPsychological interventions are widely implemented for pain management and treatment, but their reported effectiveness shows considerable variation and there is elevated likelihood for bias.

methodsWe summarized the strength of evidence and extent of potential biases in the published literature of psychological interventions for pain treatment using a range of criteria, including the statistical significance of the random effects summary estimate and of the largest study of each meta-analysis, number of participants, 95% prediction intervals, between-study heterogeneity, small-study effects and excess significance bias.

resultsThirty-eight publications were identified, investigating 150 associations between several psychological interventions and 29 different types of pain. Of the 141 associations based on only randomized controlled trials, none presented strong or highly suggestive evidence by satisfying all the aforementioned criteria. The effect of psychological interventions on reducing cancer pain severity, pain in patients with arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, breast cancer, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, self-reported needle-related pain in children/adolescents or with chronic musculoskeletal pain, chronic non-headache pain and chronic pain in general were supported by suggestive evidence.

conclusionsThe present findings reveal the lack of strong supporting empirical evidence for the effectiveness of psychological treatments for pain management and highlight the need to further evaluate the established approach of psychological interventions to ameliorate pain.

Indexed as

Pain ManagementPsychotherapyChronic PainHumansMalePainPain managementPsychological interventionsPsychologyUmbrella review

Identifiers

PMID28859685
PMCPMC5580223
OpenAlexW2750757235

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.