AIM: To understand the mental characteristics and differences between comprehensive psychotherapy and simple physiotherapy and rehabilitation training in patients with cervical spondylosis. METHODS: Totally 60 patients, who were treated at the Department of Rehabilitation Physiotherapy, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA between February and December 2005, were enrolled, including 38 males and 22 females, aged from 22 to 68 years, averagely (50.6 +/- 15.2) years, with disease course of 0.6 to 17 years. There were 28 cases of nerve root type, 9 cases of vertebral artery type, 12 cases of spinal cord type, 6 cases of sympathetic nerve type and 5 cases of mixed type. They all accompanied with exercises and sensory disturbance to different degrees, and accorded with the diagnosis evidence of cervical syndrome of Clinical Disease Diagnosis Evidence Healing Improvement Criteria. The patients had imaging determination data of x-ray, CT, MRI and so on. They all knew and agreed the experiment and were randomly divided into control group and therapy group with 30 in each group. Those in the control group received routine physiotherapy and rehabilitation training, which included braking, cervical vertebra traction, manipulative therapy, physiotherapy, article mobilization, cinesiotherapy and necessary drug treatment. Those in the treatment group were given psychotherapy with the exception of routine treatment, which included mental health education, mental leading, cognitive behavior therapy and so on. On admission and 3 months after treatment the patients were assessed with the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) that contained 90 items, being interpreted in the context of nine symptom dimensions, including somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psyehotieism, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), which contained 85 items and stood for extroversion-introversion (E), neuroticism (N), psychoticism (P) and social desirability (L) and activity of daily life measuring scale (Barthel Index). RESULTS: Of the 60 questionnaires, there were 58 qualified questionnaires, which were accounted for 96.7%. (1) Compared with the control group, after rehabilitation training and psychotherapy, the scores of somatization, interpersonal relationship, depression, anxiety, and phobia were significantly decreased in the therapy group (1.82 +/- 0.22, 1.27 +/- 0.40, 1.24 +/- 0.33, 1.02 +/- 0.52, 1.30 +/- 0.24; 2.69 +/- 0.26, 1.96 +/- 0.39, 2.25 +/- 0.37, 2.19 +/- 0.47, 2.40 +/- 0.41, p < 0.05). (2) The scores of P dimension and N dimension in the therapy group were significantly lower than those in the control group (47.69 +/- 7.32, 52.22 +/- 8.75, p < 0.05; 41.97 +/- 8.79, 46.33 +/- 5.16, p < 0.05). (3) Barthel Index in the therapy group after treatment was significantly higher than that in the control group (69.80 +/- 9.96, 63.33 +/- 6.92, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Mental intervention is benefit to improve the mental health and rehabilitative curative effect. For patients with cervical spondylosis, proper psychotherapy is necessary on the basis of physiotherapy and rehabilitation.

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