A new form of psychotherapy appears to work even better at treating chronic pain in older adults than gold-standard cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, a new study finds.

U.S. veterans who received emotional awareness and expression therapy, or EAET, experienced a longer and more significant reduction in chronic pain than those who underwent CBT, researchers recently reported in the journal JAMA Network Open.

About 63% of veterans who underwent EAET reported at least a 30% reduction in pain, which is considered clinically significant. Only 17% of veterans who got CBT achieved that sort of pain relief.

Furthermore, pain reduction was sustained among 41% of EAET participants six months after treatment, compared to 14% of CBT patients.

EAET patients also reported more benefits for addressing anxiety, depression, PTSD and life satisfaction, researchers added.

“Most people with chronic pain don’t consider psychotherapy at all. They’re thinking along the lines of medications, injections, sometimes surgery or bodily treatments like physical therapy,” said lead researcher Brandon Yarns, an assistant professor at UCLA Health’s Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences.

CBT focuses on helping patients improve their ability to tolerate pain, using exercises designed to recognize pain triggers and respond to them in helpful ways, researchers said.

Developed in the 2010s, EAET takes a different tack by focusing on emotions. This therapy holds that the brain’s perception of pain is strongly influenced by stress-related emotions.

Patients are asked to focus on a stressful interaction. The purpose is to have them experience these emotions in both body and mind, Yarns said, and then work to confront these emotions, express their reactions and ultimately let go.