HBOT Effect on Chronic Pain Syndrome With a History of Psychological Trauma

This study is a prospective clinical trial. After signing a written informed consent, all patients will be invited to medical evaluation including pain sensitivity examination and a series of questionnaires. In addition, all patients will have chest X-ray, cognitive evaluation, brain MRI and brain Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) . A second brain MRI, brain SPECT, pain sensitivity evaluation and questionnaires will be done after 3 months of treatment (60 sessions of HBOT). The HBOT procedure will be performed at the Sagol center for hyperbaric medicine and research of Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Israel. The following HBOT protocol will be applied for all patients: 12 weeks, 5 times per week, daily administration of 100% O2 for 90 minutes at a pressure of 2 absolute atmospheres (ATA) including 5 minutes air breaks every 30 minutes. Patients with history of psychological trauma are also being treated with creative art psychotherapy. These patients will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups: (1) single intervention with creative art psychotherapy (psychotherapy group); (2) combined concurrent intervention of HBOT and creative art psychotherapy. Groups 1 will serve as controls during the first 3 months and then will be crossed to get HBOT. Before the cross to the HBOT they will have 2nd full evaluation (questioners and brain imaging).