Back Pain Breakthrough: A Therapy That Works for 3 Years
- Rebecca Brown
- Aug 27, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 23
Chronic low back pain is frustratingly common, and for many people it lingers for years. While lots of treatments offer some relief, the improvements are usually small and short-lived. That often leaves people asking: “Is this really working?”
A new 3-year follow-up from the RESTORE trial, published in The Lancet Rheumatology (2025), gives us a clear answer: yes, Cognitive Functional Therapy (CFT) works — and it keeps working.
What Did the Study Test?
Researchers compared three groups of people with long-term, disabling back pain:
Usual care (whatever treatment people would normally choose in the community)
CFT only (up to seven personalised sessions plus a booster)
CFT with wearable biofeedback (the same therapy, with added movement sensors)
More than 300 people were followed for three years.
The Results in Plain Numbers
The standout finding? People who received CFT were twice as likely to experience lasting, meaningful improvement compared to those who had usual care.
62–74% of people in CFT had a significant improvement in their ability to move and do daily activities, compared with 33% in usual care.
About half of those in CFT reached a point where their disability was so low it could be considered “recovery,” compared with 17% in usual care.
And importantly, these changes weren’t fleeting. They were still there three years later.
Adding movement sensors didn’t make a big difference — the core CFT approach itself was powerful enough.
Why These Numbers Matter
In back pain research, it’s rare to see long-term effects like this. Many treatments might shave off a couple of points of pain in the short-term, but the benefits fade. The fact that CFT’s impact held strong over three years is remarkable.
For someone living with pain, the numbers mean this: you’re not just chasing short bursts of relief. You’re building skills, confidence, and resilience that can last.
Recognising When Therapy is Working
This study reminds us that “success” isn’t about pain disappearing overnight. Instead, it’s about:
Moving with more freedom
Feeling less limited in daily activities
Worrying less about flare-ups
Regaining confidence to do the things you love
Those are the true markers of recovery — and they show the therapy is working, even if some pain remains.
A Hopeful Shift in Care
Cognitive Functional Therapy is now the first treatment for disabling back pain with clear evidence of large, long-term benefits. It’s a huge step forward in modern pain care — proving that lasting change is possible when we shift the focus from “fixing the spine” to supporting the person.
Hancock, M., Smith, A., O’Sullivan, P., Schütze, R., Caneiro, J. P., Laird, R., O’Sullivan, K., Hartvigsen, J., Campbell, A., Wareham, D., Chang, R., & Kent, P. (2025). Cognitive functional therapy with or without movement sensor biofeedback versus usual care for chronic, disabling low back pain (RESTORE): 3-year follow-up of a randomised, controlled trial. The Lancet Rheumatology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(25)00135-3
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