The Effect of Pain Education Group Therapy and Its Impact on Chronic Pain, Kinesiophobia, and Physical Activity

March 24, 2026 updated by: Hanna Kalajas-Tilga, University of Tartu

Physical Activity in Patients With Chronic Pain, Its Adherence to WHO Physical Activity Recommendations, and Its Associations With Kinesiophobia, Central Sensitization, Depression, and Pain Intensity

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if pain knowledge group intervention among chronic pain patients would influence their level of physical activity, pain intensity, depression, kinesiophobia and central sensitization. The main question it aims to answer is:

Primary hypothesis: pain education will decrease participants' depression and pain intensity and increase their physical activity.

There is no comparison group.

Participants will participate in a 6-week pain knowledge intervention where they will be learning about sleep, stress models, physical activity benefits, pain neurobiology, mindfulness, pain medication.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

50

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 Contact Backup

  • Name: Mati Arendi, PhD

Study Locations

  • Estonia
    • Tartu
      • Tartu, Tartu, Estonia, 50406
        • Recruiting
        • Tartu University Hospital
        • 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

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Pain lasting longer than 3 months,
  • Consequences resulting from long-term pain (such as decreased physical activity, sleep disturbances, fatigue, low mood, etc.)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Surgery that occurred less than 3 months prior
  • Fracture or limb trauma that occurred less than 3 months prior

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: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Pain education intervention

The participants will receive a 6-week pain education in groups. In addition, they are asked to wear an Actigraph to measure their actual physical activity. The topics in the pain education group are as follows:

  1. The pain management team - the patient as the supportive leader of the team
  2. Contemporary understanding of the biopsychosocial nature of pain
  3. Stress and its impact on pain
  4. Use of medications in the treatment of chronic pain
  5. Physical activity and its impact on pain
  6. Negative thoughts and their impact on pain
  7. Use of relaxation and mindfulness techniques in pain management
  8. Sleep and sleep hygiene
  9. Setbacks and coping with them
Behavioral: pain education
In one group there will be 8-12 participants who will meet once a week during 6 -weeks time. The educational sessions will be 2-hours long including sometimes some exercises and also reflection of the participants.
Other Names:
  • pain neuroscience education
  • pain management education

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change of pain intensity from baseline to 6-weeks
Time Frame: from enrollment to the end of treatment at 6 weeks
Pain is measured using Graded Chronic Pain Scale -Revised where the lowest value is 0 and the highest is 100. The higher the score, the more pain the subject feels.
from enrollment to the end of treatment at 6 weeks
Change of pain intensity from baseline to 6-weeks
Time Frame: from enrollment to the end of treatment at 6 weeks
Pain is measured using Brief Pain Inventory Short form where the lowest value is 0 and the highest value is 10. The higher the score, the more pain the subject feels.
from enrollment to the end of treatment at 6 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in depression from baseline to 6-weeks
Time Frame: from enrollment to the end of treatment at 6 weeks
Depression is measured using Emotional well-being questionnaire where the lowest value is 0 and the highest value is 100. Lower score indicates worse health condition.
from enrollment to the end of treatment at 6 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Tartu

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)

April 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

May 31, 2030

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 30, 2030

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 13, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 19, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

March 24, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 30, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 24, 2026

Last Verified

March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • ChronicPain

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

We might share the data of the participants on OpenScience Platform

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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