Out-patient cognitive-behavioural therapy with amitriptyline for chronic non-malignant pain: a comparative study with 6-month follow-up.

A study was carried out in a multidisciplinary pain clinic with the purpose of comparing the effectiveness of outpatient cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) with amitriptyline (AMI) to that of supportive therapy with AMI. The treatments were given weekly over 8 weeks. Global and continuous outcome measures were used. Analysis was by chi-square for global data and MANOVA with baseline scores as covariants for continuous variables. No significant differences could be demonstrated. The scores over a 6-month follow-up period suggested a delayed positive advantage for CBT but this only approached and did not achieve statistical significance. The findings are discussed.