Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain: An Overview of Systematic Reviews with Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.

This overview of reviews aimed to summarize the evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials of the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for adults with chronic pain in relation to pain intensity, pain-related functioning, quality of life, and psychological factors. The Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library databases were searched from inception to July 2, 2023. AMSTAR 2 was used to assess the methodological quality of systematic reviews. The overlap among reviews was calculated. Nine reviews comprising 84 meta-analyses of interest were included. At post-treatment, some meta-analyses mainly showed that ACT can reduce depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, psychological inflexibility, and pain catastrophizing; and can improve mindfulness, pain acceptance, and psychological flexibility. At three-month follow-up, ACT can reduce depression symptoms and psychological inflexibility, as well as improve pain-related functioning and psychological flexibility. At six-month follow-up, ACT can improve mindfulness, pain-related functioning, pain acceptance, psychological flexibility, and quality of life. At six-twelve-month follow-up, ACT can reduce pain catastrophizing and can improve pain-related functioning. Some methodological and clinical issues are identified in the reviews, such as a very high overlap between systematic reviews, the fact that the certainty of the evidence is often not rated and specific details needed to replicate the interventions reviewed are often not reported. Overall, however, randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews show that ACT can improve outcomes related to chronic pain (eg, pain-related functioning). Future systematic reviews should address the methodological and clinical concerns identified here to produce higher-quality findings. PERSPECTIVE: Despite certain methodological and clinical issues, randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews of ACT appear to show that it can improve outcomes related to chronic pain (eg, psychological factors).

How can clinicians enhance self-efficacy beliefs in osteoarthritis? An overview of systematic reviews with meta-analysis.

This overview of reviews aimed to synthesize the effectiveness of non-pharmacological approaches to enhance self-efficacy in people with osteoarthritis. The CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, and the Cochrane Library databases were searched from inception to December 2023. We considered systematic reviews with meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials evaluating any non-pharmacological intervention. We used AMSTAR 2 to assess the methodological quality of reviews. The overlap between reviews was calculated. We included eight systematic reviews with meta-analysis evaluating 30 different clinical trials. Overall, mind-body exercises, psychological interventions, and self-management strategies may improve arthritis self-efficacy. Specifically, the meta-analyses showed tai chi exercises, coping skills training, and the arthritis self-management program are more effective than controls to enhance arthritis self-efficacy in people with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis. In addition, inconsistent results were detected across meta-analyses regarding the effectiveness of multidisciplinary interventions. Finally, the degree of overlap between all reviews was moderate (CCA = 6%) and many included reviews reported most of the items of AMSTAR 2. Tai chi exercises, coping skills training, and the arthritis self-management program may be beneficial for enhancing arthritis self-efficacy. Open Science Framework Registration: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/VX2T6 .