Physical Activity and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as Treatment for Long Term Pain (FACTA)

Linköping University (LiU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Pain

Treatments: Other: Physical activity; Behavioral: ACT

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02399644

REHSAM_RS2010/002

Details and patient eligibility

About

Only to a limited extent has been compared the effectiveness of physical exercise and psychological interventions in subjects with chronic pain. Knowledge about this is necessary in order to compose optimal multimodal rehabilitation programs at different health care levels. Moreover, assuming that both types of interventions have effects, these effects may necessarily not concern the same outcome variables. Therefore it may be important to understand to what extent the effects overlap and the extent to which the effects are isolated to an intervention.

The overall strategic purpose of the present study is to develop effective multimodal rehabilitation programs. In this study the effectiveness of following three interventions are compared.

• Group-based rehabilitation according to a concept based on an Acceptance and Commitment Training -Stress Management Intervention (ACT-SMI)
• Group-based rehabilitation compromised of physical exercise (Exercise).
• Group-based discussion concerning pain and its consequences (i.e., the control group, CON) The effectiveness is investigated with respect to long-term effects on pain and its consequences, including perceived health and return to work / sick leave.

The overall hypothesis is that the former intervention means better long-term results because it clearly helps the individual to process the psychological aspects of itself likely to have long lasting effects.

Enrollment: 180 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• chronic pain in the neck and/or back with or without pain in one or more quadrants of the body

Exclusion criteria

• Inflammatory and neurological diseases, severe social and/or psychological problems, patients that already have taken part in multidisciplinary rehabilitation programs

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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180 participants in 3 patient groups

ACT

Experimental group

Description:

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a version of Cognitive behavioral Therapy that focuses on acceptance and mindfulness. The aim is to prevent avoidance and control of negative private events such as anxiety or pain. The treatment consists of 7 weekly group sessions, 2 hours a week. The participants are given homework between sessions.

Treatment:

Behavioral: ACT

Physical activity

Experimental group

Description:

Participants are going to participate in a training programme including aerobic exercise as well as endurance and strength training for the neck, shoulders, low back, core and leg muscles. The training is group-based and supervised by a physiotherapist two times a week, one hour a time for eight weeks. Home exercises twice a week are also a part of the intervention. It is possible to individually adjust movements and intensity to the participants' capacity if needed.

Treatment:

Other: Physical activity

Experience based discussion group

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants are going to discuss their experiences of long term pain. The discussions is supervised by a heath care professional and is based on beforehand defined subjects, i.e. relations, spare time, economics, occupation. The meetings are hold for 7 weeks, 2 hours a week.