SynthesisClinical psychology review2022
How do psychologically based interventions for chronic musculoskeletal pain work? A systematic review and meta-analysis of specific moderators and mediators of treatment.
Synthesis in Clinical psychology review, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The effectiveness of psychological interventions on pain, disability, and psychological symptoms in whiplash-associated disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Instruments for measuring fatigue in people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases: a systematic review of measurement properties.RMD open · 2025Pooled it
- Embrace Pain-A Randomized Controlled Trial of Online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Painful Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy in Cancer Survivors.Psycho-oncology · 2026Trial
- The effect of mindfulness-based preoperative education on postoperative pain: a Solomon four-group randomized controlled trial.BMC psychology · 2026Trial
- Pain Science Education, Stress Management, and Cognition-Targeted Exercise Therapy in Chronic Whiplash Disorders: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- Fatigue and Sleep-related Impairment as Predictors of the Effect of Nonpharmacological Therapies for Active duty Service Members With Chronic Pain: A Secondary Analysis of a Pragmatic Randomized Clinical Trial.Military medicine · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Music Therapy for Pain Management for People With Advanced Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Psycho-oncology · 2024Trial
- Temporal pathways between alexithymia, psychological distress, and pain: An autoregressive mediation analysis.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Therapist-patient correspondence in internet-based CBT for chronic pain: Associations with outcome and adherence.Internet interventions · 2026Article
- Reframing Rehabilitation Retention in Long-Term Conditions: A Theory-Informed Mini-Review of Psychological Adaptation and Engagement.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Nondual Awareness as a Novel Chronic Pain Relieving Mechanism.Psychology of consciousness (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Single Session Behavioral Interventions for Chronic Pain A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.The journal of pain · 2026Review
- Examining the utility of process-focused data driven psychological networks for individualizing psychological treatment in chronic pain-A single case experiment testing the centrality hypothesis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The efficacy, safety, and satisfaction of telehealth-delivered hypnotic cognitive therapy for chronic pain in spinal cord injury: A pilot study with historical controls.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2025Article
- Co-development of an evidence-informed, theoretically driven exercise programme for people with chronic non-specific neck pain (the EPIC-Neck programme - "Exercise Prescription Improved through Co-design").BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Article
- Sex-based differences in musculoskeletal pain among surgeons: an international survey.Surgical endoscopy · 2025Article
- Comprehensive and Efficient Assessment of Psychological Flexibility in the Context of Chronic Pain.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Use of Intervention Mapping to Adapt a Psychologically Informed Physical Therapy Telerehabilitation Intervention for Latino Persons With Chronic Spine Pain.The journal of pain · 2025Article
- Psychological Treatment in the Management of Pain following Musculoskeletal Injury.Journal of orthopaedics and sports medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Psychologically based interventions aim to improve pain-related functioning by targeting pain-related fears, cognitions and behaviors. Mediation and moderation analyses permit further examination of the effect of treatment on an outcome. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to synthetize the evidence of specific mediators and moderators (i.e., treatment targets) of psychologically based treatment effects on pain and disability. A total of 28 mediation and 11 moderation analyses were included. Thirteen mediation studies were included in a meta-analysis, and the rest was narratively synthetized. Reductions in pain-related fear (indirect effect [IE]: -0.07; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.11, -0.04) and catastrophizing (IE: -0.07; 95%CI: -0.14, -0.00), as well as increases in self-efficacy (IE: -0.07; 95%CI: -0.11, -0.04), mediated effects of cognitive behavioral therapy on disability but not on pain intensity, when compared to control treatments. Enhancing pain acceptance (IE: -0.17; 95%CI: -0.31, -0.03) and psychological flexibility (IE: -0.30; 95%CI: -0.41, -0.18) mediated acceptance and commitment therapy effects on disability. The narrative synthesis showed conflicting evidence, which did not support a robust moderated effect for any of the examined constructs. Overall, the methodological quality regarding mediation was low, and some key pitfalls are highlighted alongside recommendations to provide a platform for future research.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.