Balancing Lupus Experiences With Stress Strategies (BLESS)

An Intervention to Reduce Psychosocial and Biological Indicators of Stress in African American Lupus Patients: The Balancing Lupus Experiences With Stress Strategies (BLESS) Study

Linking a psychosocial stress intervention with clinical measures of stress in African American lupus patients will assess the utility of this method in reducing perceived stress, and provide the necessary preliminary steps toward future investigations of potential mechanisms.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Arthritis Self Management Program

Detailed Description

To begin to fill this research void, a stress intervention will be piloted and both biological specimens and questionnaire responses collected to assess changes in stress state following the intervention in patients who participated in the intervention compared to those who did not participate in the intervention.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 30
• Phase: Phase 2; Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • South Carolina
    • Charleston, South Carolina, United States, 29425
      • Medical University of South Carolina

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years of age or older
• African American
• Diagnosis of Lupus

Exclusion Criteria:

• Previous participation in a disease self management program

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Self management program; The Arthritis Self-Management Program (ASMP) will be administered to 15 African American lupus patients participating in an ongoing "SLE Clinic Database Project" at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Fifteen other patients will serve as controls and receive usual care.

Behavioral: Arthritis Self Management Program; Intervention activities will consist of six weekly sessions of the Arthritis Self-Management Program (ASMP). Sessions will be administered in a group setting with the 15 African American lupus patients randomly assigned to the intervention arm of the study. Fifteen other patients will serve as controls and receive usual care. Patients participating in the stress intervention will receive six weeks of peer led sessions ranging in disease-specific and more general self-help content. The intervention will include homework assignments to practice and record use of session techniques and to complete worksheets regarding session-specific topics and activities. Usual care will include a brief explanation of the disease and relevant literature.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Perceived stress	Psychosocial stress will be assessed by five validated measures. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), The Perceptions of Racism Scale, modified version of the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) health distress scale, adapted by the Stanford Patient Education Research Center, and The Beck Depression Inventory.	Four months
Biological Indicators of stress	Salivary specimens will be collected immediately preceding intervention activities, immediately following intervention activities, and four months post-intervention activities for analyses of salivary cortisol and Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Specified markers were chosen because they are easy to collect, relatively inexpensive, and reliable measures of stress.	Four months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Quality of Life	Quality of life will be assessed using two instruments that describe a spectrum of quality of life outcomes; The LUP-QOL and the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue (FACIT-F). Stanford Patient Education Research Center Questionnaires assessing medical outcomes will also be used. These scales also assess whether key behaviors concerning communicating with health care providers and health care utilization have changed.	Four months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Medical University of South Carolina
• Collaborators: Pfizer
• Investigators: Study Director: Edith M Williams, PhD, University of South Carolina; Principal Investigator: James C Oates, MD, Medical University of South Carolina

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: August 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 1, 2011
• Study Completion (Actual): October 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 9, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 10, 2011
• First Posted (Estimated): May 11, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): December 22, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 15, 2025
• Last Verified: December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Lupus; stress
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Connective Tissue Diseases; Autoimmune Diseases; Immune System Diseases; Skin and Connective Tissue Diseases; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic
• Other Study ID Numbers: BLESS