NCT05302180

Online Pain Education in Addition to Usual Care in Chronic Pain.

Online Pain Education in Addition to Usual Care in Individuals With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: Protocol for a Hybrid Type III Randomized Controlled Trial.

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 249 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Universidade Cidade de Sao Paulo · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The lack of pain specialists limits users' access to non-pharmacological therapeutic pain control strategies. In this context, digital health programs can reduce the inequity of access to interventions, contribute to the self-management of chronic musculoskeletal conditions, reduce the burden on primary care and can help to reorganize the flow of referral of individuals in the health care network. The aim of this study will be to analyze the implementation and health outcomes of three online pain neuroscience education strategies in individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain. This is a hybrid type III effectiveness-implementation randomized controlled trial. Individuals with ≥18 years old with chronic musculoskeletal pain will be recruited from primary health care in the city of Guarapuava/PR/Brazil and referred to the health care network for conventional physical therapy in addition to the online pain neuroscience education program (EducaDor). The EducaDor program will be delivered in 3 modalities: 1) synchronous online; 2) asynchronous videos; 3) Interactive e-book. The implementation outcomes evaluated will be: acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility, adoption, fidelity, penetration, sustainability and costs; and health outcomes will include: pain, functionality, quality of life, sleep, physical activity, self-efficacy, adverse effects, prognostic and risk groups. The evaluations will be done at baseline, after the end of the interventions and follow-up of 6 months.

Detailed description

Systematic reviews have demonstrated the efficacy of pain neuroscience education in the treatment of adult individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain in reducing pain, anxiety, and depression; and increased of knowledge about pain, functionality and physical performance. The literature demonstrates moderate quality of evidence of pain neuroscience education in addition to usual physical therapy intervention in short-term with a weighted mean difference of 1.3 points for pain and 3.94 points for disability. Previous systematic reviews also suggest that pain neuroscience education alongside to usual physical therapy care or exercise-based treatments can be considered cost-effective compared to usual care alone. Despite the large evidence for treatment of chronic pain, generally these evidence-based strategies are inadequately applied in practice by public health providers, inadequately integrated into lifestyle behaviors by health users and featured in health policy and health service delivery at a disproportionate level with the burden of disease. Another point, is that most of this available evidence is derived largely from research of high-income economies and reflected in clinical practice guidelines and policies targeted towards high-income settings. So, strategies to translate this evidence into policy and practice in low- and middle-income settings remain sparse. Hence, implementation research to determine the most acceptable, effective and sustainable health strategies to bring the chronic pain clinical practice guidelines into policy and practice in low- and middle-income countries is urgently needed. Thus, the implementation of an online pain neuroscience education service in the health care network of Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) articulated with primary health care could provide coordinated and consistent care to the needs of individuals with chronic pain, with appropriate reference to specialists. The purpose of this study is to conduct a hybrid type III effectiveness-implementation randomized controlled trial with the following objectives: (1) to assess the effects of three implementation strategies of an online pain neuroscience education service in the public health system of Guarapuava city, Parana, Brazil; (2) to compare the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the three implementation strategies of online pain education.

Conditions

• Chronic Pain
• Musculoskeletal Pain

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Pain neuroscience education	The online pain neuroscience education program will be based on the model proposed by the Pain Research Group, available in http://pesquisaemdor.com.br, which presents the "Path of Recovery". In our program we will hold 10 meetings: (1) conversation with the group, (2) acceptance and pain education, (3) continuation about pain education, (4) sleep hygiene, (5) pharmacological assistance, (6) recognizing stress and negative emotions, (7) increasing positive coping in lifestyle, (8) exercises, (9) communication, and (10) prevention of recurrence. The program will be offered by synchronous meetings; asynchronous (videos) and e-book.
OTHER	Usual care	All participants will receive usual care in one of the five physiotherapy clinics accredited to SUS, according to availability of scheduling in the services. The usual care consists of 10 sessions of physical therapy, that is mainly composed by kinesiotherapy and electrothermophototherapy.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-10-27
• Primary completion: 2023-12-01
• Completion: 2025-03-01
• First posted: 2022-03-31
• Last updated: 2022-12-21

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Brazil