Sustainability of Improvements in Adaptive Coping Following Mind-Body and Activity Training for Chronic Pain

Background The strategies patients use to cope with chronic pain are key determinants of pain-related treatment outcomes and are often targeted in psychosocial interventions for chronic pain. However, improvements in coping often fade after intervention completion. Here, we test whether previously reported improvements in coping following two novel mind-body and activity interventions are maintained 3 months after completion. Methods Eighty-two patients with heterogeneous chronic pain were randomized to two identical mind-body and activity interventions, one with the addition of a Fitbit device (GetActive-Fitbit) and one without it (GetActive; n = 41 each). Participants completed measures of pain-catastrophizing, kinesiophobia, mindfulness, adaptive coping, and pain-resilience at baseline, post-intervention, and at 3-month follow-up. Results At follow-up, participants in both groups exhibited sustained improvements in all five coping measures compared to baseline (significant in both groups for all measures except for p = .05 in kinesiophobia in GetActive and p = .07 in pain resilience in GetActive-Fitbit). Conclusions Overall, GetActive and GetcActive-Fitbit are promising interventions to sustainably improve coping with chronic pain.

Automated summary

The study found that patients showed sustained improvements in coping with chronic pain after two novel mind-body and activity interventions, suggesting that these interventions are effective.