Due in 10 days
Research Review Report on Chronic pain (low back pain) :
Describe and explain the psychological intervention that appears to be most effective in treating or managing symptoms of low back pain. Why is this approach more effective than others?
For this assessment task you are asked to write a report on the current research surrounding psychological interventions for low back pain. These illnesses are typically perceived of as having ‘physical’ or ‘biological’ causes, but psychology has a key role for management or treatment.
Length :1200 words
To complete this task well you should:
• Identify and explain the illness.
• Identify and explain the psychological treatment you have identified as most effective in assisting with symptoms of illness
• Explain to the reader: What is the treatment. Why might this treatment be effective in theory?
• Ensure that your work is based on thorough investigation of psychological literature (using journal database search)
• Use current empirical research to explain why this treatment is effective relative to other treatments, consider questions like:
• In what studies has this treatment been shown to improve symptoms?
• With what populations?
• Using which experimental methods?
• What other approaches has the identified approach been compared with?
• Why were other approaches less successful?
• Conclude by explaining how the psychological approach can be used in holistic treatment of the patient.
Useful resources:
• Chronic Pain- Mindfulness vs CBT
• Meta-Analysis-of-Psychological-Interventions-for-Chronic-Low-Back-Pain
Suggested approach for writing the Research Review
Opening paragraph
• Identify and define the illness/condition you are going to discuss • Identify and define the psychological intervention that you will argue is the most effective in
treating the illness/condition • Finish with a signposting statement that tells the reader what the rest of the paper hopes to
achieve o For example “This paper will first discuss typical treatment options for
[illness/condition] before arguing that [psychological intervention] may also be an
effective approach to alleviating symptoms” o For example “Here, it is argued that while [illness/condition] can be managed by
[typical non-psychological approaches], integrating [psychological approach] into
treatment plans may prove to be a more effective strategy in assisting individuals to
manage the condition.
Paragraph two
• Briefly explain the typical treatment options/approaches for alleviating symptoms of the
illness condition • Remember to cite academic sources to support your statements. That is, if you argue that
medical approaches are fairly effective in assisting the condition, make sure you cite an
academic source that shows this information is accurate. • Conclude this paragraph with a statement that shows you have thought about why these
treatments might not help all individuals affected by the condition, or why the approach is
not always successful (e.g. why should we consider using psychological interventions?) o This statement serves as an important linking sentence between this paragraph and
the next
Paragraph three
• Now begin to discuss the psychological intervention that might be successful in helping the
condition • This paragraph might be somewhat theoretical, explaining what the approach is and what it
involves. You might explain some of the following:
o What does the intervention involve? o How is it administered? o How does it work? o Why, in theory, might he approach by useful in treating conditions like those you are
discussing? • Remember here that you still need to use academic sources as evidence for your statements.
Paragraph four- five
• In the next 1-2 paragraphs you should focus on discussing some studies that have set out to
demonstrate that the intervention is effective. • In this section, tell the reader about experiments that have been conducted o How has the intervention been assessed? In what ways? With what populations (e.g.
kinds of people)? o What specific aspects were found to be effective? o What kinds of symptoms have been demonstrated to improve after the
intervention/treatment? • Try to look for similarities and points of comparisons across studies that were conducted o You might use sentences like: “[authors] found [intervention] to be effective in
alleviating [specific symptoms] in [specific groups of people] after [a certain number
of months, or rounds of treatement etc]. Similarly, [authors] report
[decreases/increases] in [symptom/behaviour] after [intervention], however [some
point of comparison between the two studies]. By contrast, [symptoms/behaviours]
showed no change after [treatment] for [groups of people/ or duration of
treatment/ or type of approach] [authors] • Try to think about why the intervention works sometimes and not others o You might say something like “It is possible that [intervention] is most effective [for
a certain group/ or when administered in a certain way/ or for certain symptoms],
which would explain the difference in results obtained by [ some authors] who
[assessed the intervention in some way] and [other authors] who [did something
else].
Paragraph 6
• Why is this approach more effective than others? o This can be interpreted as “more effective than other psychological approaches” or
“more effective than all other kinds of approaches” • This should be a short paragraph, but you should try and think critically about the aspects of
this treatment that make it effective. • Remember to continue to use references to support your statements. o Hint: these might be similar references to those you used earlier in paragraph three. o Hint: you might refer to other treatments that fail to account for particular aspects
of the condition, or have flaws in their approach
Concluding paragraph
• Summarise your paper • You might start by saying something like “In sum, there is evidence to show that
[psychological intervention] might be effective in alleviating symptoms of [illness condition]. o Then explain briefly how the approach works, why this is effective and why this is
more effective than others (i.e. 1-3 sentences summarising paragraphs 3-6). • Make sure the final sentence of this paragraph is a nice clear take home message that clearly
Marking criteria :