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. 2018 May 1;98(5):408-423.
doi: 10.1093/ptj/pzy022.

Cognitive Functional Therapy: An Integrated Behavioral Approach for the Targeted Management of Disabling Low Back Pain

Peter B O'Sullivan  1 , J P Caneiro  2 , Mary O'Keeffe  3 , Anne Smith  4 , Wim Dankaerts  5 , Kjartan Fersum  6 , Kieran O'Sullivan  7
Affiliations

Cognitive Functional Therapy: An Integrated Behavioral Approach for the Targeted Management of Disabling Low Back Pain

Peter B O'Sullivan et al. Phys Ther. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Biomedical approaches for diagnosing and managing disabling low back pain (LBP) have failed to arrest the exponential increase in health care costs, with a concurrent increase in disability and chronicity. Health messages regarding the vulnerability of the spine and a failure to target the interplay among multiple factors that contribute to pain and disability may partly explain this situation. Although many approaches and subgrouping systems for disabling LBP have been proposed in an attempt to deal with this complexity, they have been criticized for being unidimensional and reductionist and for not improving outcomes. Cognitive functional therapy was developed as a flexible integrated behavioral approach for individualizing the management of disabling LBP. This approach has evolved from an integration of foundational behavioral psychology and neuroscience within physical therapist practice. It is underpinned by a multidimensional clinical reasoning framework in order to identify the modifiable and nonmodifiable factors associated with an individual's disabling LBP. This article illustrates the application of cognitive functional therapy to provide care that can be adapted to an individual with disabling LBP.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Multidimensional factors associated with resilience and vulnerability to disabling low back pain.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Triage of low back pain and the contribution of cognitive functional therapy. LBP = low back pain.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Radar graphs outlining the multidimensional profile of the 3 cases before and after the cognitive functional therapy (CFT) intervention.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Interplay of clinician- and patient-specific factors in the clinical journey with cognitive functional therapy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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