Feasibility Trial of a 10-Week Adaptive Yoga Intervention Developed for Patients with Chronic Pain

Abstract

BackgroundThis study assessed the feasibility of implementing a yoga intervention adapted for participants diagnosed with chronic pain in a large Midwest neuroscience pain clinic. Although conducted using a small convenience sample, this was a novel program in that it was led by an advanced practice nurse certified in pain management and to teach yoga. She was therefore uniquely qualified to tailor the yoga practice to suit individual needs of study participants. DesignThe intervention consisted of a weekly 1-hour class for 10 weeks. Feasibility measures included patient recruitment, program adherence, patient satisfaction, global impression of change, and likelihood of continuing yoga practice. In addition, it was hypothesized that the program would positively affect participants’ pain interference, physical function, pain intensity, pain behavior, mood, sleep, and pain medication usage. MethodsSurvey measurements were conducted 10 weeks before class start, immediately before the first class, and immediately after the last class. ConclusionsAlthough there is a strong body of research supporting the benefits of yoga for chronic pain conditions, our experience highlights some of the challenges of implementing an adaptive yoga program. Our study found that recruitment of patient through physician referral was highly feasible; however, retention rates for participants were very low. Program adherence is a barrier for research on yoga in chronic pain, as well as for clinical practice. A slight reduction in pain interference and physical function over time and trend toward improvement in all exploratory outcomes was identified. None of these trends were statistically significant, likely because of small sample size.