Effectiveness of a Pain Education Program on Chronic Neck Pain Patients

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:

Patient education over the knowledge of pain causes and perpetuating psicosocial factos, so as a gradual physical therapy intervention may success in modifying habits, and consequently emotional state and behaviour in order to maintain or recover subject's social participation being this program effective in pain diminution over chronic neck pain.

Main goal: To evaluate the effectiveness of a pain education program for patients with chronic neck pain, to decrease the intensity of pain in front of one physiotherapy program (TENS and exercise)

Experimental group: Will receive five group sessions of 60-120 minutes twice a week with a maximum of 10 participants.

Control group: Five individual sessions twice a week, will be performed of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on neck area an exercises.

OUTCOMES

Primary outcome

• Intensity of pain, measured by the visual analog scale: VAS. The mean of the values wil be calculated described in the assessment, the mean of the last week was also compiled.
• The degree of neck disability/impairment measured using the Northwick Park Pain Questionnaire (NPPQ)

Inclusion criteria

• Subjects over 18 years old
• Subjects diagnosed with chronic neck pain.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients with acute and subacute neck pain. Those presenting inflammatory, neurologic, rheumatic or heart disease or pacemakers. Patients with severe osteoporosis, fractures, dislocations, vertebrobasilar insufficiency, infection, metastatic tumor, pre and post-surgical etiology recent (less than one year after the intervention).

Psychopathology patients diagnosed by their doctor. Subjects who do not understand or speak the Spanish language.