Evaluation of a Mind-Body Based Approach for Chronic Pain Treatment

August 29, 2025 updated by: University of the Fraser Valley

Evaluation of a Mind-Body Application in Combination With a Graded Movement Program for the Treatment of Chronic Pain

The investigators are evaluating the effects of a mind-body mobile application, in combination with a guided movement program, on the experience of chronic pain. Participants meeting the criteria for chronic/persistent pain (confirmed via self-report) will complete an online baseline questionnaire. Eligible participants will take part in an intervention that involves use of a 6-week free trial of a mind-body focused mobile application in combination with virtual asynchronous audio-guided somatic education sessions (gentle movement). External data from a usual care control arm and a mobile-app-only arm from a previous study by the same research team, National Clinical Trials (NCT) registry number NCT05090683, will be used for comparison with the current combined intervention. All participants will complete online surveys at the start of the study and after 6 weeks to measure pain intensity and interference (primary outcomes), mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, stress), pain-related thoughts (pain catastrophizing), quality of life, and fear of movement (secondary outcomes). From weeks 2 to 6, participants will fill out weekly surveys to track how often they engage with each: the somatic education (gentle movement) program and the mobile app. Participants will also complete a follow-up survey at 12 weeks (6 weeks post-intervention conclusion).

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

See protocol for more details. (submitted at time of registration)

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

100

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • British Columbia
      • Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, V2R0N3
        • University of the Fraser Valley
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Participants aged 19 to 75 years with chronic pain
  • Chronic pain is defined as having non-malignant chronic or persistent pain for at least 6 months.
  • Participants must experience pain at least half the days in the last 6 months.
  • Pain can include bodily pain or head (migraine) pain
  • Participants must have access to an electronic device
  • Participants must be willing to engage in weekly somatic education activities

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Individuals reporting a cognitive impairment that can interfere with completing questionnaires and using a mobile application.
  • Individuals reporting substance use disorder (within the last 6 months).
  • Individuals reporting any of the following medical conditions: metastatic cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, scleroderma, polymyositis.
  • Individuals with previous experience with the mind-body app under study (Note: use of "Calm" or another meditation-only app is not an exclusion).
  • Individuals with current regular (at least once a week) engagement with a somatic movement program (e.g., Feldenkrais, Hanna Somatics, Somatic Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Mind-body mobile application and guided movement
Participants are asked to engage (minimum 4x per week) with a user-guided mobile application (app) that employs mind-body techniques including expressive writing, meditation, cognitive behavioural therapy, and pain education. The app also includes access to podcasts that focus on pain counselling and pain education. Participants are also asked to follow (3x per week) an audio-guided somatic education program (light-intensity graded movement).
Behavioral: Mind-body mobile application and guided movement
Self-directed: The study team recommends daily use of the mobile app for 6 weeks, with a minimum of 4 times per week, and engagement with the somatic education program at least 3 times per week for 6 weeks. Frequency of app usage and somatic education engagement will be monitored via weekly surveys.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Brief Pain Inventory-short form (BPI-SF) Pain Severity
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks.

Measures self reported pain severity (over past 24 hours).

BPI Pain Severity: single item scale within larger Brief Pain Inventory tool that asses pain "average" pain severity. Item scale ranges from 0 to 10. 0 = "no pain", 10 = "pain as bad as you can imagine". Higher scores indicate worse outcome (pain severity), lower scores indicate better outcome.

Item range = (0,10).
Baseline, 6 weeks.
Change in Brief Pain Inventory-short form (BPI-SF) Pain Interference
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks.
Item 9 on the BPI measures interference with daily living. There are 7 items (reflecting seven daily activities) and each is scored on 11-point scales from 0 = "does not interfere" to 10 = "completely interferes" for interference with activities of daily living. Pain interference score is calculated as an average of the 7 items, with a range from 0 to 10. Higher scores represent worse outcomes (higher interference).
Baseline, 6 weeks.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Pain Intensity short form 3a
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks

Measures self reported pain intensity over the past 7 days "on average" and "at its worst" along with an item to assess pain intensity "now". The three items are added together to produce a raw score which can be converted to a t-score.

Each item uses 5-pt Likert scale from 1 = "had no pain" to 5 = "very severe".

Raw scores range from 3 to 15. Higher scores indicate worse outcomes.
Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Pain Interference short form 8a
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks

Measures self reported pain interference in daily activities (over 7 days). 8 items are added together for a raw score, which can then be converted to a t-score.

Each item uses 5-pt Likert scale from 1 = "not at all" to 5 = "very much" (regarding pain interference).

Raw scores range from 8 to 40. Higher scores indicate worse outcomes.
Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in Pain Catastrophizing Questionnaire (PCS)
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 and 12 weeks

Measures thoughts and perceptions of pain, 13 items, scored using 5-pt Likert scale 0 = "not at all" to 4 = "all the time".

Scores are the sum of all items. min score = 0; max score = 52. Higher scores indicate worse outcomes.
Baseline, 6 and 12 weeks
Change in Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia Questionnaire (TSK)
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 and 12 weeks

Measured self-reported kinesiophobia assessing fear of movement or re-injury due to pain.

Each item rated on a 4-point Likert scale: 1 = "strongly disagree" to 4 = "strongly agree." Total score range = (11, 44). Higher scores indicate greater fear of movement and worse outcomes.
Baseline, 6 and 12 weeks
Change in Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21)
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 and 12 weeks

Measures self reported emotional states, three subscales: depression, anxiety, stress (each 7 items) Items scored on 4-point Likert scale: 0 = "did not apply to me at all" to 3 = "applied to me very much or most of the time".

Scores for each subscale are summed. Scores are then multiplied by 2 to calculate final score for each subscale.

Scale ranges for each subscale is from 0 to 42 (after doubling of scores). Higher scores indicate worse outcomes.
Baseline, 6 and 12 weeks
Change in Quality of Life Short Form 12 (SF-12) Physical Component Score
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 and 12 weeks

Measures self-reported impact of health on daily life. The SF-12 is a brief version of the SF-36 and contains 12 items measured using a variety of Likert scales and dichotomous yes/no scales, with each item response assigned a numerical weight.

The Physical Component Score (PCS) is a summary score that is reported as a z-score. Scores are calculated using regression weights and constants that have been derived from a U.S. population.

Each item response choice category is coded as an indicator variable (scored 1 / 0). Indicator variables are weighted using regression coefficients from the US population for the PCS. The weighted scores across all items are then summed and are added to a constant (regression intercept) to obtain a summary score. Score ranges 0 to 100. Normalized score such that component scales have a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10 in the general population.

Lower scores indicate worse outcomes. Higher scores indicate improved physical health.
Baseline, 6 and 12 weeks
Change in Quality of Life Short Form 12 (SF-12) Mental Component Score
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 and 12 weeks

Measures self-reported impact of health on daily life. The SF-12 is a brief version of the SF-36 and contains 12 items measured using a variety of Likert scales and dichotomous yes/no scales, with each item response assigned a numerical weight.

The Mental Component Score (MCS) is a summary score that is reported as a z-score. Scores are calculated using regression weights and constants that have been derived from a U.S. population.

Each item response choice category is coded as an indicator variable (scored 1 / 0). Indicator variables are weighted using regression coefficients from the US population for the MCS. The weighted scores across all items are then summed and are added to a constant (regression intercept) to obtain a summary score. Score ranges 0 to 100. Normalized score such that component scales have a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10 in the general population.

Lower scores indicate worse outcomes. Higher scores indicate improved mental health.
Baseline, 6 and 12 weeks
Change in Brief Pain Inventory Pain Severity Composite Score
Time Frame: baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks

A composite score derived from the average of four items that assesses at its "worst", "least", "average" over the past 24 hours, along with "now". Item scales range from 0 to 10. 0 = "no pain", 10 = "pain as bad as you can imagine". Higher scores indicate worse outcome, lower scores indicate better outcome.

Item range = (0,10).
baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in Brief Pain Inventory Pain Severity (from baseline to 12 weeks)
Time Frame: baseline, 12 weeks

Note: This is a secondary outcome (change from 0 to 6 weeks is a primary outcome).

Measures self reported pain severity and pain interference (over past 24 hours).

BPI Pain Severity: single item scale within larger Brief Pain Inventory tool that inquires about "average" pain severity over the past 24 hours. Item scale ranges from 0 to 10. 0 = "no pain", 10 = "pain as bad as you can imagine". Higher scores indicate worse outcome, lower scores indicate better outcome.

Item range = (0,10).
baseline, 12 weeks
Change in Brief Pain Inventory Interference (from baseline to 12 weeks)
Time Frame: baseline, 12 weeks

Note: This is a secondary outcome (change from 0 to 6 weeks is a primary outcome).

Measures self reported pain interference (over past 24 hours).

BPI Pain Interference: Item 9 on BPI measures interference with daily living. There are 7 items embedded within and each is scored on 11-point scales from 0 = "does not interfere" to 10 = "completely interferes" for interference with activities of daily living. Pain interference score is calculated as an average of the 7 items, with a range from 0 to 10. Higher scores represent worse outcomes.
baseline, 12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of the Fraser Valley

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Cynthia J Thomson, PhD, University of the Fraser Valley

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

October 1, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

November 1, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 19, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 19, 2025

First Posted (Estimated)

August 27, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

September 8, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 29, 2025

Last Verified

August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 101806

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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