---
title: "Psych News Alert: Remote CBT Effectively Addresses Pain"
description: Cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic pain (CBT-CP) delivered either by a remote health coach or via a self-guided online program can re...
image: https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/back_pain_iStock-1249589005.jpg
---

 7/23/25 12:00 AM

# Remote CBT Effectively Addresses Pain

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Cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic pain (CBT-CP) delivered either by a remote health coach or via a self-guided online program can reduce pain severity among patients, according to a [study](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2836795) published today in *JAMA*.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a widely accepted and effective nonpharmacologic treatment for chronic pain, but is limited by a paucity of trained clinicians, especially in non-urban areas, wrote Lynn DeBar, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, and colleagues. “Remote treatment is promising for lowering costs; overcoming patient, clinician, and system barriers; and having greater safety compared with pharmacologic pain treatments.”

DeBar and colleagues recruited 2,331 participants (mean age of 59, 74% women, 75% White, 44% rural) with high-impact musculoskeletal pain. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: The first group received eight one-on-one sessions of CBT-CP with a health coach delivered over phone or video conference; the second group self-completed an eight-session, online CBT-CP program; and the third group received usual care, plus a mailed copy of a pain-management resource guide.

Before and after the intervention, participants completed the 11-item version of the Brief Pain Inventory–Short Form to determine their pain severity. A 30% or greater reduction in someone’s pain inventory score post-intervention was considered a clinically meaningful improvement.

After completing the intervention, 32% of participants in the health coach group and 26.6% of participants in the online intervention group reported meaningful pain improvements, compared with 20.8% in the usual care group. While participants in the health coach group were statistically more likely than those in the self-guided group to show meaningful improvement in their pain severity, the benefit of CBT-CP over usual care was sustained over 12 months in both groups.

The findings “suggest that centralizing delivery of the CBT-CP based programs via telephone/videoconferencing and online interventions is effective, with potential for widespread dissemination into clinical care and health care organizations nationwide,” the authors concluded.

For related information, see the *Psychiatric News* article "[Integrated Behavioral Approaches Show Promise in Treating Pain](https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2022.08.5.11)."

(Image: Getty Images/iStock/Mintr)

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[pain](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/pain), [cognitive-behavioral therapy](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/cognitive-behavioral-therapy), [CBT](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/cbt), [remote care](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/remote-care), [digital interventions](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/digital-interventions), [high-impact pain](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/high-impact-pain), [health coach](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/health-coach)

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