Use of behavioural activation to manage pain: a scoping review protocol
Open accessAbstract
Introduction: Chronic pain is a distressing condition and often poorly treated and managed. Psychological therapies are considered first-line intervention for people with chronic pain. Common psychological therapies require extensive clinician training and specialist qualifications. One approach that does not need lengthy training nor specialist qualification, but has empirical support in other health domains, is behavioural activation (BA). BA seeks to increase engagement in behaviours that are valued by the person and progress through behaviours that can increase mood and develop skills that build satisfying routines. BA can help people to manage their condition through scheduling behaviours, promoting routine and mastery over their condition. The extent to which BA has been used to support people living with chronic pain is not clear. Methods and analysis: This scoping review aims to identify published studies describing the application of BA to support people living with chronic pain. To map the evidence regarding BA and chronic pain, including the study type and the associated evidence, a scoping review was adopted. The search will be conducted in bibliographic databases, clinical trial registries and grey literature. No date limits will be applied to the search strategy. Screening of titles and abstracts, and full-text screening, will be independently undertaken by two investigators using Covidence software. Any disagreement between investigators will be resolved by a third investigator. Data from included publications will be extracted using a customised data extraction tool. Ethics and dissemination: The scoping review is an analysis of existing data and therefore ethics approval is not required. The findings of this scoping review will further our understanding of how BA has been used to support people living with chronic pain and inform future training and education programmes in this area.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR): Checklist and Explanation
Tricco, A. C., Lillie, E., Zarin, W., O'Brien, K. K., Colquhoun, H., Levac, D., Moher, D., Peters, M. D. J., Horsley, T., Weeks, L., et al. (2018) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/m18-0850 · Cited by 43,565 · see citing works
Munn, Z., Peters, M. D. J., Stern, C., Tufanaru, C., McArthur, A., & Aromataris, E. (2018) · BMC Medical Research Methodology · doi:10.1186/s12874-018-0611-x · Cited by 11,385 · see citing works
Oliveira, C. B., Maher, C. G., Pinto, R. Z., Traeger, A. C., Lin, C.-W. C., Chenot, J.-F., van Tulder, M., & Koes, B. W. (2018) · European Spine Journal · doi:10.1007/s00586-018-5673-2 · Cited by 1,584 · see citing works
Tsang, A., Von Korff, M., Lee, S., Alonso, J., Karam, E., Angermeyer, M. C., Borges, G. L. G., Bromet, E. J., de Girolamo, G., de Graaf, R., et al. (2008) · The Journal of Pain · doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2008.05.005 · Cited by 1,157 · see citing works
Veehof, M. M., Oskam, M.-J., Schreurs, K. M. G., & Bohlmeijer, E. T. (2011) · PAIN · doi:10.1016/j.pain.2010.11.002 · Cited by 792 · see citing works
Richards, D. A., Ekers, D., McMillan, D., Taylor, R. S., Byford, S., Warren, F. C., Barrett, B., Farrand, P. A., Gilbody, S., Kuyken, W., et al. (2016) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)31140-0 · Cited by 595 · see citing works
Ekers, D., Webster, L., Van Straten, A., Cuijpers, P., Richards, D., & Gilbody, S. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100100 · Cited by 565 · see citing works
Behavioural activation for depression
Veale, D. (2008) · Advances in Psychiatric Treatment · doi:10.1192/apt.bp.107.004051 · Cited by 282 · see citing works
Richmond, H., Hall, A. M., Copsey, B., Hansen, Z., Williamson, E., Hoxey-Thomas, N., Cooper, Z., & Lamb, S. E. (2015) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134192 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
How Does Behavioural Activation Work? A Systematic Review of the Evidence on Potential Mediators
Janssen, N. P., Hendriks, G.-J., Baranelli, C. T., Lucassen, P., Oude Voshaar, R., Spijker, J., & Huibers, M. J. H. (2021) · Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics · doi:10.1159/000509820 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 11
- [2]Mazzucchelli TG, Da silva M. The potential of behavioural activation for the treatment of chronic pain: an exploratory review. Clin Psychol 2016; 20: 5– 16. 10.1111/cp.12088 · DOI
- [3]Nicolson SE, Caplan JP, Williams DE, et al. Comorbid pain, depression, and anxiety: multifaceted pathology allows for multifaceted treatment. Harv Rev Psychiatry 2009; 17: 407– 20. 10.3109/10673220903463226 19968455 · DOI
- [4]Surdea-Blaga T, Băban A, Dumitrascu DL. Psychosocial determinants of irritable bowel syndrome. World J Gastroenterol 2012; 18: 616– 26. 10.3748/wjg.v18.i7.616 22363132 PMC3281218 · DOI
- [5]Tang Q-L, Lin G-Y, Zhang M-Q. Cognitive-Behavioral therapy for the management of irritable bowel syndrome. World J Gastroenterol 2013; 19: 8605– 10. 10.3748/wjg.v19.i46.8605 24379577 PMC3870505 · DOI
- [7]Turk DC, Meichenbaum D, Genest M. Pain and behavioural medicine: a cognitive-behavioral perspective. New York, NY: Guilford Press, 1983.
- [8]Cheng JOS, Cheng S-T. Effectiveness of physical and cognitive-behavioural intervention programmes for chronic musculoskeletal pain in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. PLoS One 2019; 14: E0223367. 10.1371/journal.pone.0223367 31600270 PMC6786598 · DOI
- [15]Lewinsohn PM. A behavioral approach to depression. essential papers on depression. New York: New York University Press, 1974: 150– 72.
- [16]Kanter JW, Puspitasari AJ. Global dissemination and implementation of behavioural activation. Lancet 2016; 388: 843– 4. 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31131-X 27461438 · DOI
- [22]Peters MDJ, Godfrey CM, Khalil H, et al. Guidance for conducting systematic scoping reviews. Int J Evid Based Healthc 2015; 13: 141– 6. 10.1097/XEB.0000000000000050 26134548 · DOI · Paper page
- [23]Arksey H, O'Malley L. Scoping studies: towards a methodological framework. Int J Soc Res Methodol 2005; 8: 19– 32. 10.1080/1364557032000119616 · DOI · Paper page
- [29]James, SL, Abate, D, Abate, KH, et al. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2017. Lancet 2018; 392: 1789– 858 https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2818%2932335-3 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32279-7 30496104 PMC6227754 · DOI · Paper page
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Sanabria-Mazo, J. P., Colomer-Carbonell, A., Borràs, X., Castaño-Asins, J. R., McCracken, L. M., Montero-Marin, J., Pérez-Aranda, A., Edo, S., Sanz, A., Feliu-Soler, A., et al. (2023) · The Journal of Pain · doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2023.04.008 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Medina, S., Forero, C. G., Sanabria‐Mazo, J. P., Rodríguez‐Freire, C., Navarrete, J., O'Daly, O. G., Howard, M. A., & Luciano, J. V. (2025) · Brain and Behavior · doi:10.1002/brb3.70380 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“It is also a new form of CBT that focuses on the promotion of patterns of behaviors that break cycles of anhedonia and negative reinforcement, usually stemming from avoidance behaviors and lethargic lifestyle (Soucy Chartier and Provencher 2013; Walsh et al. 2021).”
- Authors
- Walsh, S., Jones, M., Gray, R. J., Gillam, M., Gunn, K. M., Barker, T., Eshetie, T., & Moseley, G. L.
- Affiliations
- University of South Australia (AU)
- La Trobe University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Jones, Martin
- ORCID
- Venue
- BMJ Open
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2021-06
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- e041036
- ISSN
- 2044-6055 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8183225
- OpenAlex
- W3164799541
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 2.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMJ Open (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- UniSA Research Outputs Repository (University of South Australia) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Adelaide Research & Scholarship (AR&S) (University of Adelaide) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- La Trobe University (cc-by)
- Funders
- National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia (ID1178444)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Treatment
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Keywords
- behavioral activation, chronic pain, pain management, psychological intervention, routines, mood, clinician training
- MeSH terms
- Systematic Reviews as Topic, Scoping Reviews As Topic, Scoping Reviews as Topic, Educational Status, Humans, Pain, Research Design, Databases, Bibliographic
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
