Sustainability of Improvements in Adaptive Coping Following Mind-Body and Activity Training for Chronic Pain

Abstract

Background: The strategies patients use to cope with chronic pain are key determinants of pain-related treatment outcomes and are often targeted in psychosocial interventions for chronic pain. However, improvements in coping often fade after intervention completion. Here, we test whether previously reported improvements in coping following two novel mind-body and activity interventions are maintained 3 months after completion.

Methods: Eighty-two patients with heterogeneous chronic pain were randomized to two identical mind-body and activity interventions, one with the addition of a Fitbit device (GetActive-Fitbit) and one without it (GetActive; n = 41 each). Participants completed measures of pain-catastrophizing, kinesiophobia, mindfulness, adaptive coping, and pain-resilience at baseline, post-intervention, and at 3-month follow-up.

Results: At follow-up, participants in both groups exhibited sustained improvements in all five coping measures compared to baseline (significant in both groups for all measures except for p = .05 in kinesiophobia in GetActive and p = .07 in pain resilience in GetActive-Fitbit).

Conclusions: Overall, GetActive and GetcActive-Fitbit are promising interventions to sustainably improve coping with chronic pain.

Trial registration: This trial is registered under ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03412916.

Keywords: Chronic pain; Coping; Mindfulness; Pain catastrophizing; Resilience.

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

© 2021. International Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Figures

Fig. 1

Participant flow (adapted from [12])

Fig. 2

Outcome measures for GetActive. Unadjusted means and standard errors at each assessment point

Fig. 3

Outcome measures for GetActive-Fitbit. Unadjusted means and standard errors at each assessment point