Digital acceptance and commitment therapy for the treatment of chronic pain

BACKGROUND: in a clinical sample of patients with chronic pain in Germany. METHODS: comprises a sequence of seven units with interactive content and audio, video, and textual elements. Written support was delivered by psychotherapists (in training) based on standardized templates incorporating automated components. 360 patients with a medically confirmed diagnosis of chronic pain were included in the trial. The primary endpoint was the degree of pain interference (on the interference scale of the Multidimensional Pain Inventory) at 12 weeks. The efficacy analysis was based on linear regression models (intention to treat [ITT], multiple imputation). RESULTS: At 12 weeks, the patients in the intervention group exhibited significantly lower pain interference scores (d = 0.69; 95% confidence interval: [0.46; 0.92]) than those in the control group; they also had fewer depressive symptoms (d = 0.40; [0.17; 0.63]) and experienced better health-related quality of life (d = -0.23; [-0.40; -0.06). These effects were still present at 6 and 12 months. CONCLUSION: effectively and sustainably reduces impairment by pain to a clinically relevant extent, alleviates symptoms overall, and may contribute to the successful implementation of guideline-based care for patients with chronic pain.