Journal of Athletic Training<\/em>, found that a patient\u2019s emotional response to their injury does appear to have some influence on their potential recovery. Specifically, the study found that a patient\u2019s pain level prior to surgery influenced their emotional response to the injury and later, their perceived readiness to return to activity. The researchers also found that patients\u2019 knee pain and quadriceps strength at the time they were cleared to return to activity influenced their assessment of their knee function and readiness to return to sport.<\/p>\nPeople respond differently to ACL injuries and rehabilitation, says Lepley. Some approach their situation positively and have better outcomes than others. If a patient has a particularly negative association with their injury, helping them address those issues could be beneficial toward improving their recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe psychological component to injury has been lacking across the board in rehabilitation and especially for ACL injuries,\u201d Lepley says. \u201cIf there is one piece I hope clinicians get out of this study, it is that there is a psychological component to these injuries that seems to be interacting with the physical side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patient emotions toward their injury appear to have an effect throughout the recovery process, according to the study.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a moving target,\u201d says Lepley. \u201cIt\u2019s showing influence presurgery, two weeks after surgery, and six months down the line. There definitely appears to be an interaction happening where the psychological and physical functions are feeding off of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The good news, Lepley says, is that the two factors most directly influencing a patient\u2019s self-reported disability \u2013 pain and quadriceps strength \u2013 are things that can be addressed clinically.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a clinician\u2019s standpoint, the neat thing here is that it gives us multiple areas in which to intervene,\u201d Lepley says. A comprehensive approach using traditional rehabilitation that includes attention to psychological barriers may be an effective strategy for improving outcomes for ACL injuries, the study says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can rehab an ankle or a knee injury and I can get athletes back to where they need to be physically,\u201d Lepley says. \u201cBut there are certain things we, as athletic trainers and clinicians, can\u2019t do. We are recognizing that there may be an interdisciplinary aspect to this and that collaborating with sports psychologists or other mental health care providers may be warranted for patients who are suffering psychologically due to their injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
The concept isn\u2019t new. Psychological interventions have been shown to have positive effects on patients with cancer, arthritis, and lower back injuries who are dealing with pain, swelling, and nausea, Lepley says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can maximize both the physical and the psychological treatment of the patient at the same time, I believe we can have better outcomes,\u201d says Lepley.<\/p>\n
Joining Lepley on the study were Brian Peitrosimone, co-director of the Neuromuscular Research Laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Marc Cormier, a sport and exercise psychologist from the University of Kentucky.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A UConn researcher finds that including psychological interventions in the rehabilitation process can boost recovery from an ACL injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":138947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2224,2231,2076,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1928],"class_list":["post-138167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cahnr","category-health-well-being","category-research","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 17:38:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138167"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138257,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138167\/revisions\/138257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/138947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138167"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=138167"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=138167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}