A $2.5 million Medical Research Future Fund grant has been awarded to a NeuRA researcher for a trial investigating ways to treat chronic low back pain.

Professor James McAuley, Senior Research Scientist and Director of the Centre for Pain IMPACT at NeuRA, and Professor in the School of Health Sciences at UNSW, has received the grant to compare the effectiveness of graded sensorimotor retraining with current best-practice supervised exercises.

Graded sensorimotor retraining was developed by Prof McAuley’s team and has been rigorously tested, but it is not known if it is more effective than supervised exercise.

“We know that supervised exercises are currently the gold standard for managing back pain; however, these only have short term effects,” Prof McAuley said.

“Patients will feel better, but this dissipates quickly, and in three to six months is gone. The graded sensorimotor retraining is exciting because it could have longer term and sustained effects. This trial will seek to compare the pain retraining intervention against the gold standard and analyse which will be a better evidence-based therapy.

“I greatly appreciate receiving funding for this study, which will tell us which is the best treatment for people with chronic low back pain, giving certainty for the millions of Australians who have this condition.”

Chronic low back pain affects more than half a billion people worldwide and is a major cause of physical disability. The randomised trial will test the effectiveness of graded sensorimotor retraining, with co-primary outcomes of pain and disability. It is expected to involve 792 participants.