Abstract
Objectives Chronic pain causes significant disability and psychological distress, but barriers often prevent people with pain from engaging in traditional face-to-face pain management programs. Accessible, feasible, and effective alternative treatment options are needed. Methods A prospective, feasibility pilot study was conducted to trial a novel, multidisciplinary online pain management program: the “Reboot Online” program. Twenty participants experiencing pain of at least three months duration were recruited. All participants were enrolled in the “Reboot Online” program, consisting of eight online lessons completed over 16 weeks. Lessons incorporated multidisciplinary input from medical pain specialists, physiotherapists, and psychologists. Participants were assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and follow-up using a suite of outcome measures examining pain, disability, catastrophising, self-efficacy, mood, and psychological distress. Results 13 participants completed the program (65% adherence). Following treatment, the participants had significantly improved scores on measures of pain-related disability, self-efficacy, catastrophising thoughts, acceptance of pain, symptoms of depression, and general psychological distress. These findings were retained at three months posttreatment. Participants also reported high levels of acceptability and satisfaction with the program. Discussion This study provides pilot evidence for the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of an online, multidisciplinary pain program: “Reboot Online.” Future investigations will focus on conducting a randomised controlled trial of this innovative and promising treatment for chronic pain. This trial is registered with ACTRN12615000660583.
Highlights
Chronic pain is a multifaceted health problem with considerable burden at the individual and global level [1,2,3]
A strong evidence base has developed for the efficacy of Internet-based psychological treatments, Pain Research and Management especially those based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) principles, to treat a wide range of mental health conditions including depression and anxiety disorders [7,8,9]
A consequent systematic review duplicated the small to moderate effect sizes for pain intensity scores (−0.35 to −0.16), measures of catastrophising, depression, and functional interference (−0.35 to −0.16; [14]). erefore, given the typically small to moderate effect sizes reported of Internet-based pain management programs, it is warranted to explore the viability of developing a novel program to improve treatment efficacy
Summary
Chronic pain is a multifaceted health problem with considerable burden at the individual and global level [1,2,3]. A viable and effective Internet-based pain management program could improve access to evidencebased multidisciplinary treatment for people with chronic pain who cannot access face-to-face services. Bender et al [16] reported significant improvement on measures of pain intensity, depression, anxiety, and functional measures for participants who completed online pain management programs compared to controls; it is difficult to compare these results with other reviews because this paper did not report effect sizes. A consequent systematic review duplicated the small to moderate effect sizes for pain intensity scores (−0.35 to −0.16), measures of catastrophising (range −0.32 to −0.26), depression (range −0.18 to −0.14), and functional interference (−0.35 to −0.16; [14]). Erefore, given the typically small to moderate effect sizes reported of Internet-based pain management programs, it is warranted to explore the viability of developing a novel program to improve treatment efficacy A consequent systematic review duplicated the small to moderate effect sizes for pain intensity scores (−0.35 to −0.16), measures of catastrophising (range −0.32 to −0.26), depression (range −0.18 to −0.14), and functional interference (−0.35 to −0.16; [14]). erefore, given the typically small to moderate effect sizes reported of Internet-based pain management programs, it is warranted to explore the viability of developing a novel program to improve treatment efficacy
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