PLoS ONE (Jan 2024)

Acceptance and commitment therapy for patients with chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis on psychological outcomes and quality of life.

  • Lu Ye,
  • Yunhua Li,
  • Qingchuan Deng,
  • Xin Zhao,
  • Lili Zhong,
  • Li Yang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301226
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19, no. 6
p. e0301226

Abstract

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ObjectivesTo assess the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for patients with chronic pain.Materials and methodsThe research conducted a systematic search of the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases following the PRISMA guidelines. The retrieval time limit was from the establishment of the database to October 2023. A meta-analysis was carried out for the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria by using RevMan 5.3.ResultsTwenty-one RCTs were included. At post-treatment, a significant medium effect size (ES) was found in measuring pain interference, functional impairment, pain acceptance, psychological inflexibility, and depression; Pain intensity, anxiety, and quality of life (QOL) had a small ES. At three months post-treatment, a large ES was found in measuring functional impairment, and a medium ES was found in the other indicators.ConclusionThe researchers provided evidence for the effectiveness of ACT as an intervention for patients with chronic pain, which can be applied by clinicians or nurses in practice. Future research should explore the applicability of ACT to different pain conditions and modalities.Implications for nursingPost-treatment data highlight the efficacy of ACT in moderating pain-related outcomes. Clinical nurses are encouraged to incorporate ACT into routine patient education and interventions, including promoting pain acceptance, promoting mindfulness practices, and using cognitive stress reduction techniques. Standardized follow-up after an ACT intervention for patients with chronic pain is critical, including regular assessment, feedback, and realignment of treatment strategies. Overall, ACT became an important tool for nurses to improve the lives of patients with chronic pain.