Pain Neuroscience Education shows short-term benefit for PTA student attitudes, not sustained at 3 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Pain attitudes and beliefs of healthcare professionals play a crucial role in shaping treatment behaviors in pain management. Pain Neuroscience Education (PNE) frames pain as an output under the influence of biopsychosocial factors, rather than as a direct marker of tissue damage. This study aimed to compare the effects of PNE and traditional pain education on pain-related beliefs and attitudes in Turkish physiotherapy assistant (PTA) students. METHODS: Forty-one students were randomly assigned to either a PNE group (n = 20) or a traditional education group (n = 21). Both groups received a single 70-min lecture. Beliefs and attitudes were assessed at baseline, post-education, and 3-month follow-up using the Health Care Pain Attitudes and Impairment Relationship Scale (HC-PAIRS) and the Pain Beliefs Questionnaire (PBQ), which includes Organic and Psychological subscales. RESULTS: The Generalized Linear Model analyses revealed a significant main effect of group on HC-PAIRS and PBQ-Organic scores (p < 0.001). However, no statistically significant group × time interaction (HC-PAIRS: p = 0.593; PBQ-Organic: p = 0.119) or main effect of time (HC-PAIRS: p = 0.068; PBQ-Organic: p = 0.524) was observed. Between-group differences were observed at the immediate post-education time point, with lower HC-PAIRS and PBQ-Organic scores in the PNE group compared with the control group (p < 0.001). At the 3-month follow-up, these differences were attenuated and no longer significant (p > 0.05). DISCUSSION: This randomized controlled trial adds to the literature by directly comparing a PNE-based lecture with traditional pain education, delivered within the same curricular setting under routine PTA program conditions. Although an immediate post-education separation favored PNE, the primary group × time interaction was not statistically significant; therefore, post-education between-group differences should be interpreted as short-term separation rather than divergent longitudinal trajectories. The between-group difference attenuated at follow-up, suggesting that curricular reinforcement may be worth evaluating. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Study registration: NCT07005778.