The effects of psychologically informed physical therapy on kinesiophobia, pain, disability, depression, and anxiety in patients with chronic low back pain: an intervention study focusing on graded exposure.

Only 19 patients were studied, with 10 in the control group and 9 in the experimental group, so the results are too small to be treated as a reliable treatment effect. The intervention lasted only two weeks, and follow-up was only after the two-week period, so long-term effects were not measured. The experimental group received several treatments together: thermal therapy, ultrasound, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, conversational psychologically informed physical therapy, and graded exposure. The paper says the individual contributions of psychologically informed physical therapy and graded exposure cannot be separated. The groups were not identical at baseline. For example, depression scores were 34.30 in the control group and 21.33 in the experimental group, which can make change scores harder to compare. No blinding is described.

The author declares no conflicts of interest.

Do not conclude that graded exposure alone caused the pain and depression improvements. The experimental group also received thermal therapy, ultrasound, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, and conversational psychologically informed physical therapy, and the paper says the individual contributions of psychologically informed physical therapy and graded exposure cannot be separated.