Problem Solving Skills Training For Parent Caregivers of Youth With Chronic Pain

Seattle Children's Healthcare System

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Pain; Headache; Abdominal Pain

Treatments: Behavioral: Problem-Solving Skills Training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01496378

1R21HD065180-01A1

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of problem-solving skills training (PSST) to reduce distress and increase coping abilities among parents of youth with chronic pain. We hypothesize that parents will complete the PSST intervention and will find it to be an acceptable and satisfactory treatment. We also hypothesize that parents who receive PSST will have less distress and better coping skills than parents who receive standard care, and that children of parents who receive PSST will have better physical and emotional functioning than children of parents who receive standard care.

Full description

Chronic pain affects 25-40% of children and adolescents, and results in significantly lower quality of life for these youth. Parents play an important role in how their children cope with chronic pain, and can also experience their own distress related to their child's illness. Parental psychological distress is widely recognized to be associated with poorer child adjustment. However, no interventions have been developed specifically to treat psychological distress in parents of children with chronic pain. Problem-solving skills training (PSST) has been shown to result in significant reductions in parental distress among caregivers of children with other types of chronic illness such as cancer. The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of PSST for parents of youth with chronic pain.

Enrollment: 122 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 10 to 17 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Child age 10-17 years
• Child's pain present for at least 3 months duration
• Pain occurs at least 1 time per week and interferes with daily functioning
• Pain is not related to a chronic disease
• Receiving evaluation or treatment in a pediatric pain clinic
• Literate in English

Exclusion criteria

• A serious comorbid chronic condition in the child (e.g., diabetes, arthritis, cancer)
• Non-English speaking
• Parent has lived with the child for less than one year
• Parent has active psychosis or suicidal ideation

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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122 participants in 2 patient groups

Problem-Solving Skills Training

Experimental group

Description:

In addition to standard medical care, parents in the problem-solving skills training group will receive 8 sessions (1 hour each) of individual problem-solving therapy over 8 weeks. Caregivers will be asked to complete the first training session and at least 3 subsequent sessions in person at their local treatment facility (Seattle Children's Hospital or Oregon Health and Science University). Remaining sessions will be completed via telephone.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Problem-Solving Skills Training

Standard Care

No Intervention group

Description:

Parents and children in the Standard Care group will continue with the care that has been prescribed for their child's pain problem by their treating physician, which may include medications, physical therapy, and mental health intervention.