A new research has suggested that mind-based therapy programs may prove beneficial in easing chronic back pain. Chronic back pain isn’t easy to deal with and after middle age, most of individuals suffering from back pain, face disability with varying degree.

Investigators found that patients who participated in such programs reported significant and long-lasting improvement in back pain compared to those who did not enroll for the research and opted to continue with their routine treatment.

Daniel Cherkin of the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, lead author of the research, said two approaches were followed in the study—mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)—and both the therapies showed positive results in alleviating the conditions of the patients.

Explaining the two therapies in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the researchers said MBSR tries to increase a person's attention to thoughts, emotions and sensations in the moment through yoga and meditation. The CBT, on the other hand, makes people aware about pain and its relation to reactions and activities, besides providing instructions and tools to cope with pain.

“The therapies can be helpful for people who haven't benefited from other therapies… Maybe it’ll make a difference for them”, said Cherkin, who along with his colleagues randomly assigned 342 adults with chronic low back pain to one of three groups.

After six months, a “meaningful improvement” was noticed in 44% of the usual care group, 58% of the CBT group and the maximum 61% in the MBSR group. Patients with meaningful improvement were noticeably less disabled, the report suggests.

Dr. Madhav Goyal, who co-wrote an editorial accompanying the new study, said that’s a good chunk of the population with chronic low back pain that could have a meaningful improvement. “I’m not sure how well CBT is covered by insurance, but MBSR certainly is not”, said Goyal, who is also affiliated with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.