The Facing Pain Study

Wayne State University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Pain

Treatments: Behavioral: Control Facebook Condition; Behavioral: Enhanced Facebook Condition

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04010019

012119B3E

Details and patient eligibility

About

This randomized trial will create and compare two private Facebook conditions for patients with chronic pain. The control condition will be comprised of groups of patients who communicate without much clinician / moderator input, and the experimental condition will have a clinician moderating and teaching patients several techniques designed to facilitate social disclosure, validation, and emotional engagement with avoided activities.

Full description

This study will investigate the effectiveness of a private Facebook group for individuals in chronic pain. Currently, more than 100,000 individuals with chronic pain (ICPs) participate in Facebook groups, seeking support from others in similar situations. There are currently some online self-management programs for ICPs; however, most lack a peer support aspect, as they are individualized, self-directed, and focus on instructing patients in how to manage their pain. The goals of the proposed online pain support group are: 1) to provide peer-to-peer social support for individuals with chronic pain; and 2) to disseminate psychosocial pain management techniques using a social media platform. Screened participants will be assigned to one of two conditions: a Facebook group similar to the groups that are occurring naturally (control condition) or an enhanced Facebook group that is moderated by clinicians and offers psychosocial pain management techniques (experimental condition). Both conditions involve peer-to-peer healthcare and support, but the experimental group additionally includes components such as psychoeducation about pain neuroscience, emotional validation training, guided emotional disclosure, and activities to overcome emotional and behavioral avoidance. Findings from this study will offer important information about the impact of Facebook support groups on pain outcomes, and test whether psychosocial pain interventions can be disseminated using a social media platform.

Enrollment: 119 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Must have chronic pain (i.e., pain that persists for greater than 3 months)
• Must be fluent at reading and writing in English
• Must have an active Facebook account and check Facebook at least 3 times a week

Exclusion criteria

• Terminal illness such as cancer
• Active psychosis (e.g., hallucinations, delusions)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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119 participants in 2 patient groups

Enhanced Facebook Condition

Experimental group

Description:

The enhanced Facebook group will be moderated by clinicians and offer psychosocial pain management techniques.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Enhanced Facebook Condition

Control Facebook Condition

Active Comparator group

Description:

In the control condition, there will be no outside intervention; rather, the investigators will instruct participants to offer mutual support for the duration of the group and will not comment further.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Control Facebook Condition