Stanford Center for Back Pain

"Real-Time fMRI: AR, CR, Sham, and Free Strategy groups will be compared to determine the following:~(1) whether a cognitive strategy improves rtfMRI neurofeedback to modulate brain activity and pain; (2) which strategy is most effective at individual and group levels at modulating brain activity and pain; and (3) whether the investigators can predict individual ability to modulate brain activity or pain using a particular strategy and applying mixed effects modeling of treatment efficacy using baseline measurements."

CBT/MBSR: The study will investigate whether CBT versus MBSR differentially enhance behavioral and neural indices of the ability to implement cognitive regulation (CR) and attention regulation (AR) during evoked pain in the lower back in participants with chronic low back pain. An additional wait list control (WL) group will be used to determine the effects of time on pain symptom severity and well-being.

Acupuncture: The investigators will compare the efficacy and mechanisms of verum and sham electroacupuncture.