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Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, PAIN, 10(156), p. 1920-1935, 2015

DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000251

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The Pain Course

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

The present study evaluated an internet-delivered pain management program, the Pain Course, when provided with different levels of clinician support. Participants (n = 490) were randomised to one of four groups: (1) Regular Contact (n = 143), (2) Optional Contact (n = 141), (3) No Contact (n = 131), and (4) a treatment-as-usual Waitlist-Control Group (n = 75). The treatment program was based on the principles of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and comprised 5 internet-delivered lessons provided over 8 weeks. The three Treatment Groups reported significant improvements (between-groups Cohen's d; avg. reduction) in disability (ds ≥ 0.50; avg. reduction ≥ 18%), anxiety (ds ≥ .44; avg. reduction ≥ 32%), depression (ds ≥ 0.73; avg. reduction ≥ 36%) and average pain (ds ≥ 0.30; avg. reduction ≥ 12%) immediately post-treatment, which were sustained at or further improved to 3-month follow-up. High treatment completion rates and levels of satisfaction were reported and no marked or consistent differences were observed between the Treatment Groups. The mean clinician time per participant was 67.69 minutes (SD = 33.50), 12.85 minutes (SD = 24.61) and 5.44 minutes (SD = 12.38) for those receiving regular contact, the option of contact and no clinical contact, respectively. These results highlight the very significant public health potential of carefully designed and administered internet-delivered pain management programs and indicate that these programs can be successfully administered with several levels of clinical support.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial No Derivatives 3.0 License, which permits downloading and sharing the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.