冥想能消除背痛吗?

冥想能消除背痛吗?

It might seem too good to be true that relief from that nagging back pain could be found in meditation and yoga. But a new study suggests this approach might be just as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy, a common technique involving relaxation and education. And both could be more effective than popping an over-the-counter pain reliever.

在冥想和瑜伽中可以缓解背痛，这似乎太好了，简直难以置信。但一项新的研究表明，这种方法可能和认知行为疗法一样有效，认知行为疗法是一种涉及放松和教育的常见技术。这两种药都比非处方止痛药更有效。

Researchers compared the two approaches in 229 adults between ages 20 and 70 with long-term low back pain. They assigned about half to receive eight weekly sessions of mindfulness-based stress reduction, involving meditation and yoga, and the other half to receive eight sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on helping people change the way they think about pain. Another 113 adults continued their usual care, which often involved ibuprofen and other pain meds.

研究人员对229名年龄在20岁至70岁之间、长期腰痛的成年人进行了比较。他们让大约一半的人每周接受8次以正念为基础的减压训练，包括冥想和瑜伽，另一半人接受8次认知行为疗法，主要是帮助人们改变对疼痛的看法。另有113名成年人继续他们的日常护理，通常包括布洛芬和其他止痛药。

The researchers found that by the end of the eight-week course, 47% of people in the mindfulness group said their back pain was less disabling, based on factors such as difficulty walking and carrying out everyday activities. A similar number of people, 52%, in the cognitive behavioral therapy group reported less disabling pain. Both groups fared better than the group that did not change treatment, of whom only 35% had experienced improvements.

研究人员发现，在为期八周的课程结束时，正念小组中47%的人表示，基于行走困难和日常活动等因素，他们的背痛的减少。有同样人数的认知行为治疗组中也有52%的人报告说，他们的致残疼痛程度较轻。两组患者的情况都好于没有改变治疗方案的那组，其中只有35%的患者的情况有所改善。

"Our results confirm what has already been found for (cognitive behavioral therapy), and we went beyond that to show this other mindfulness approach was equally effective for chronic back pain," said Daniel C. Cherkin, a senior scientific investigator at the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. Cherkin is the lead author of the study, which was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“我们的研究结果证实了已经发现的(认知行为疗法)，我们进一步证明了这种正念疗法对慢性背痛同样有效，”西雅图团体健康研究所(Group Health Research Institute)的高级科学研究员丹尼尔c切尔金(Daniel C. Cherkin)说。切尔金是这项研究的主要作者。这项研究发表在星期二的《美国医学会杂志》上。

Cognitive behavioral therapy is already recommended in "some of the most thoughtfully developed and presented guidelines," Cherkin said. For example, the American College of Physicians and American Pain Society guidelines suggest that doctors consider the therapy, along with other non-drug options such as acupuncture, massage therapy and exercise therapy, for patients with chronic low back pain.

Cherkin说，认知行为疗法已经在“一些经过深思熟虑制定和提出的指导方针”中得到推荐。例如，美国医师学会和美国疼痛协会指南建议医生考虑对慢性下腰痛患者进行治疗，以及其他非药物选择，如针灸、按摩疗法和运动疗法。

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines last week advising primary care physicians to prescribe therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and physical therapy, and medications such as Tylenol before opioids for patients with chronic pain.

美国疾病控制和预防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention，简称CDC)上周发布了指导方针，建议初级保健医生为慢性疼痛患者开出认知行为疗法和物理疗法等疗法，以及泰诺(Tylenol)等药物，然后再服用阿片类药物。

The number of people in the mindfulness group who said they had improvements in their disability was 68% one year after completing the therapy sessions compared with 47% right after the eight sessions. Similarly, the people in the cognitive behavioral therapy group who reported less disability rose from 52% right after they finished the sessions to 59% a year later. There were also improvements in the control group, from 35% to 49%, but the gains were not as great as in the therapy groups.

在正念组中，在完成治疗一年后表示他们的残疾有所改善的人数为68%，而在完成八次治疗后这一比例为47%。同样，认知行为治疗组中报告残疾较少的人从治疗结束后即刻的52%上升到一年后的59%。对照组也有改善，从35%提高到49%，但进展没有治疗组那么大。