Effects of mental practice on pain, functionality, and quality of life in individuals with chronic neck pain: A systematic review.

Purpose: There are conflicting reports in the literature regarding the effectiveness of motor imagery (MI) and action observation (AO) in individuals with chronic non-specific neck pain (CNSNP). This study sought to systematically investigate whether mental practice has any impact on pain, functionality and quality-of-life in individuals with CNSNP.

Methods: This is a systematic review. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that explored the effects of mental practice on pain, functionality and quality-of-life in individuals with CNSNP were searched using databases PubMed, Cochrane library, Medline via Ovid, Scopus, and PEDro from inception to July 2022. Two reviewers independently extracted data and evaluated the quality of the studies utilizing the PEDro scale.

Results: Six high-quality RCTs with 128 participants with CNSNP in the MI and AO groups, and 93 participants with CNSNP in the control group, were included in this review. Both AO and MI were effective in improving pain response and cervical joint position sense. However, AO was more efficient than MI and its effects were retained longer. Improvements in the visual analogue scale and neck disability index were retained when MI training lasted for 6 weeks. The pain and general health sub-parameters of the short form-36 health survey improved after MI training.

Conclusion: Mental practice, particularly AO, can improve neck pain intensity, joint position sense, functional disability, and some aspects of quality-of-life in individuals with CNSNP. These improvements dissipated over time. Although mental practice can be an alternative to exercise when pain exists, it can be more efficient when prescribed with simple movements and exercises.

Registration: The protocol of this review was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42022330240) Available from: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42022330240.