Treatment success in neck pain: The added predictive value of psychosocial variables in addition to clinical variables

Abstract Background and aims Identification of psychosocial variables may influence treatment outcome. The objective of this study was to prospectively examine whether psychosocial variables, in addition to clinical variables (pain, functioning, general health, previous neck pain, comorbidity), are predictive factors for treatment outcome (i.e. global perceived effect, functioning and pain) in patients with sub-acute and chronic non-specific neck pain undergoing physical therapy or manual therapy. Psychosocial factors included treatment outcome expectancy and treatment credibility, health locus of control, and fear avoidance beliefs. Methods This study reports a secondary analysis of a primary care-based pragmatic randomized controlled trial. Potential predictors were measured at baseline and outcomes, in 181 patients, at 7 weeks and 26 weeks. Results Hierarchical logistic regression models showed that treatment outcome expectancy predicted outcome success, in addition to clinical and demographic variables. Expectancy explained additional variance, ranging from 6% (pain) to 17% (functioning) at 7 weeks, and 8% (pain) to 16% (functioning) at 26 weeks. Locus of control and fear avoidance beliefs did not add significantly to predicting outcome. Conclusions Based on the results of this study we conclude that outcome expectancy, in patients with non-specific sub-acute and chronic neck pain, has additional predictive value for treatment success above and beyond clinical and demographic variables. Implications Psychological processes, health perceptions and how these factors relate to clinical variables may be important for treatment decision making regarding therapeutic options for individual patients.