A pain study with no physical modalities??!!

I find this bit of news to be extremely encouraging. A friend is going to be in a study at the University of Washington about chronic back pain, in which participants will be randomly divided between three modalities plus one control group. None of the treatments will be physical or medical in any way, shape, or form. They are all brain based, which is awesome!

The three treatments are: therapy (probably CBT), self-hypnosis, and a brain training program which sounds like PRT. Plus a control group which will receive no treatment, although those participants will be able to choose to receive one of the other treatments after the end of the study.

This friend believes in the mindbody connection but still struggles to apply it. Still dealing, at age 70, with her 90+ sociopathic mother and dysfunctional siblings is a pretty big deterrent to full recovery. She actually does quite well under the circumstances and incorporates many emotional health practices (including boundaries when possible) so that her back pain and various other symptoms don't impinge on living her life. We did about three miles yesterday at our beautiful arboretum with lots of up and down terrain and enjoyed every step.

Anyway, I thought that the existence of this study is pretty cool and another confirmation that we're making progress!