NCT01639196

Brief Online Intervention for Chronic Pain

The Expressive Writing Paradigm: A Study of Therapeutic Effectiveness for Chronic Pain

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 93 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Maryland, College Park · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of writing about chronic pain on mental and physical health. The effectiveness of two different types of brief online writing interventions will be explored in individuals with chronic pain.

Detailed description

Chronic pain is highly prevalent and costly, but often not treated effectively. Psychological interventions are needed as part of chronic pain treatment since the pain affects many aspects of an individual's life. In particular, brief psychological interventions that are easily accessible (i.e., online) could benefit many people with chronic pain. Writing interventions have been used in recent years to understand difficult experiences. Writing interventions have been found to help individuals explore distressing thoughts and feelings, such as those that are associated with pain.

Conditions

• Chronic Pain

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Self-compassion writing	Participants are instructed to write about their chronic pain in a way that elicits self-compassion for 20 minutes once a week for three consecutive weeks.
OTHER	Self-efficacy writing	Participants are instructed to write about their chronic pain in a way that elicits self-efficacy for 20 minutes once a week for three consecutive weeks.

Timeline

• Start date: 2012-07-01
• Primary completion: 2013-01-01
• Completion: 2013-01-01
• First posted: 2012-07-12
• Last updated: 2023-05-30