Comment on Nicholas and Asghari: Pain 2006;124:269–79

The cognitive fusion questionnaire: a preliminary study of psychometric properties and prediction of functioning in chronic pain

BACKGROUND

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and the psychological flexibility model on which it is based are growing interests for those researching and treating chronic pain. One part of this model is a therapeutic process called cognitive defusion. Cognitive defusion is a process of experiencing a distinction between thoughts and the events or people they describe. This process is intended to reduce the dominating psychological influence of thoughts without necessarily changing the content or frequency of the thoughts. There are recently developed measures of this process but little study of it in people with chronic pain.

METHODS

This study explored the reliability and validity of the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ) within a chronic pain population. A total of 326 adults with chronic pain completed this measure and a set of other standard clinical measures at the start of treatment in a specialty chronic pain service in the United Kingdom.

RESULTS

An exploratory factor analysis revealed an interpretable 2-factor structure within the items of the CFQ. Internal consistency reliability was good (α=0.87). In the analyses of validity the CFQ significantly correlated with general psychological acceptance and pain-related acceptance as expected. In multiple regression analyses, which included relevant patient background variables, pain, and acceptance of pain, cognitive fusion contributed significantly to the explained variance in the prediction of 5 of 6 dependent variables tested.

DISCUSSION

The CFQ may be a useful measure for further research and treatment development.

The Mediating Role of Acceptance in Multidisciplinary Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most frequently delivered psychological intervention for adults with chronic pain. The treatment yields modest effect sizes, and the mechanisms of action remain understudied and unclear. Efforts are needed to identify treatment mediators that could be used to refine CBT and improve outcomes. The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether pain-related acceptance, from the psychological flexibility model, mediates changes in outcome over time in a CBT-based treatment program. This includes comparing how this variable relates to 3 other variables posited as potential mediators in standard CBT: life control, affective distress, and social support. Participants attended a 5-week outpatient multidisciplinary program with self-report data collected at assessment, posttreatment, and 12-month follow-up. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test for mediation in relation to 3 outcomes: pain interference, pain intensity, and depression. Results indicate that effect sizes for the treatment were within the ranges reported in the CBT for pain literature. Pain-related acceptance was not related to pain intensity, which is in line with past empirical evidence and the treatment objectives in acceptance and commitment therapy. Otherwise, pain-related acceptance was the strongest mediator across the different indices of outcome. Accumulated results like these suggest that acceptance of pain may be a general mechanism by which CBT-based treatments achieve improvements in functioning. More specific targeting of pain-related acceptance in treatment may lead to further improvements in outcome.

PERSPECTIVE

Potential mediators of outcome in a CBT-based treatment for adult chronic pain were investigated using multilevel structural equation modeling. The results highlight the role of pain-related acceptance as an important treatment process even when not explicitly targeted during treatment. These data may help clinicians and researchers better understand processes of change and improve the choice and development of treatment methods.