Web-Based Pain Management Program Useful

In an original paper published online September 25 in The Journal of Medical Internet Research, investigators evaluated the longitudinal effects of a tailored web-based chronic management program and found that it is a user-friendly and cost effective intervention.

“Research has shown that offering traditional face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy modules tailored to client needs is an effective approach to chronic pain treatment, and allows for a more time-limited and cost-effective approach than treating individual clients using nontailored interventions,” Dana C. Nevedal, PhD, from VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Department of Clinical Health Psychology in West Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues explained. “However, these delivery formats cannot scale to meet the demand.”

The investigators included 645 participants (mean age, 56.16) in their study. Inclusion criteria consisted of completion of baseline, 1- and 6-month assessments. Overall, patients reported pain associated with joints, back, and osteoarthritis. The online program was based on several theories, including cognitive behavioral intervention, motivational enhancement, and health behavior change to address self-management.

Nevedal and colleagues found that pain intensity and unpleasantness decreases significantly from the baseline to 1-month and 6-month. “Results suggest that the tailored online chronic pain management program showed promising effects on pain at 1- and 6-months posttreatment and quality of life at 6-months posttreatment in this naturalistic study,” the authors concluded. “Further research is warranted to determine the significance and magnitude of the intervention’s effects in a randomized controlled trial.”

Reference

Nevedal DC, Wang C, Oberleitner L, Schwartz S, Williams AM. Effects of an individually tailored web-based chronic pain management program on pain severity, psychological health, and functioning. J Med Internet Res. 2013 Sep 25;15(9):e201.