The effectiveness of cognitive functional therapy on patients with chronic neck pain: A systematic literature review

Recently, psychological, and behavioral interventions such as cognitive functional therapy (CFT) has gained significant attention in musculoskeletal rehabilitation. We aimed to compare interventions with a CFT component in adults (>18 years old) suffering from chronic neck pain (CNP) or chronic whiplash associated disorders (>3 months) with another intervention or no intervention, in pain, disability, kinesiophobia, or any other reported outcome measure.

One case-study and three randomized controlled trials met the eligibility criteria. Statistically and clinically significant improvement in pain was found in favour of CFT combined with scapular exercise compared to exercise alone (MD = -19.91; 95%CI: -24.18 to -15.64) and controls (MD = -48.91; 95%CI: -53.88 to -43.94) at the very-short term follow-up. A significant difference in kinesiophobia was found at the short-term follow-up in favour of CFT and exercise compared to exercise alone (MD = -13.23; 95%CI-16.94 to -9.52) and controls (MD = -40.81 95%CI: -44.55 to -37.07). Finally, statistically and clinically significant improvement was found in favour of CFT compared to controls at the short-term follow-up in stress (MD = -36.62, 95%CI: 43.47 to -29.77), fear avoidance (MD = -35.44; 95%CI: 42.57 to -28.31), anxiety (MD = -34.43; 95%CI: 41.90 to -26.96), pain catastrophizing (MD = -25.19; 95%CI: 32.49 to -17.89), depression (MD = -30.72; 95%CI: 38.37 to -23.07), but a significant and clinically difference in favour of the control group at self-efficacy (MD = 29.56; 95%CI20.70 to 38.42).

Very low certainty evidence suggests that CFT alone or in combination with exercise may produce better outcomes than no treatment or exercise alone. The results should be interpreted with caution, given that the number of studies assessing CFT in CNP is limited.