Standard Telephone Consultation for Pain (STC)

Physician to Physician Telephone Consultation for Chronic Pain Patients: a Pragmatic Randomized Trial

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether pain control for patients with chronic pain is improved by the availability of structured telephone consultations between the patients' family physicians and pain physicians, compared to pain control for patients receiving usual care.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Chronic Pain
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Physician telephone consultation; Behavioral: Usual family physician care

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 80
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Alberta
    • Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2S 3C3
      • Alberta Health Services Chronic Pain Centre

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients referred to Alberta Health Services chronic pain center in Calgary with neurological or muscular skeletal pain

Exclusion Criteria:

• increased risk for suicide, very complex patients, family physician could not reliably identify patient's pain problem, or condition warranted expedited consultation with pain physician, case represented a new presentation of chronic regional pain syndrome, or low back pain with radicular symptoms or sciatica

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Physician telephone consultation; Received direct telephone consultation with pain physician about index patient	Behavioral: Physician telephone consultation; Pain physician support for family physician treating patient
Active Comparator: Usual family physician care; Usual family physician care (without direct telephone consultation with pain physician)	Behavioral: Usual family physician care; Usual family physician care without telephone consultation with pain physician

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Numerical Rating Scale for pain intensity (NRS)	11 point scale (from zero to 10), zero equals no pain, 10 worst possible pain.	6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Pain Disability Index (PDI)	7 item self-report scale assessing pain disability	6 months
Patient Global Impression of Change Scale (PGIC)	7 point scale	6 months
Short Form Health Survey (SF-36)	Generic quality of life scale.	6 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Pain treatment satisfaction scale (patient)	6 months
Family physician satisfaction questionnaire	6 months
Family physician knowledge transfer questionnaire	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Calgary
• Investigators: Study Director: Neil Drummond, PhD, University of Calgary

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: July 1, 2005
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2010
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 13, 2013
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 13, 2013
• First Posted (Estimate): August 15, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): August 15, 2013
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 13, 2013
• Last Verified: August 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Chronic Pain
• Other Study ID Numbers: Project ID 18618