Is chronic back pain with no diagnosed cause simply a result of the patient’s beliefs and fears? And if it is, can a psychological therapy provide long-lasting relief? 

What a boon it would be to every GP – not to mention patients – to find an effective treatment for this leading cause of disability, which affects about 20% of the population.

Identifiable causes of pain are typically found in only 15% of patients, with the vast majority having pain thought to originate, not peripherally, but in the CNS, write US researchers in JAMA Psychiatry.

In such patients, drugs and existing psychological therapies are often ineffective, they say.