Comparing Single-Session Therapies for Chronic Pain

Conditions

• Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

18 Years - N/A

Healthy Volunteers

Not accepted

Interventions

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy — BEHAVIORAL
  CBT endorses a pain management model and teaches people skills to cope with chronic pain through reframing thoughts and encouraging behavioral change.
• Pain Reprocessing Therapy — BEHAVIORAL
  PRT advocates a pain treatment model in which pain can be substantially reduced by helping people learn that their pain is brain-based and can be substantially reduced or eliminated by decreasing fear of pain and bodily injury and providing education on the neuroscience of pain.
• Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy — BEHAVIORAL
  EAET advocates a pain treatment model in which pain can be substantially reduced by helping people learn that their pain is brain-based and can be substantially reduced or eliminated by decreasing fear of pain and of various emotional/interpersonal problems.

Study Details

Many people in the US suffer from chronic pain. Often times, individuals who have chronic pain also feel depressed, anxious, or hopeless, which can worsen pain. Psychologists, therefore, have developed several treatments to help people with chronic pain. These psychological treatments differ. The most common treatment is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for chronic pain, which helps patients better manage pain through changing thoughts and behaviors. Two newer, less common psychological therapies are Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET). These therapies emphasize that chronic pain is mainly due to plastic processes of over-sensitization in the brain and nervous system, and that psychotherapies can significantly reduce or eliminate pain. Although similar, PRT and EAET stress different aspects of treatment. PRT emphasizes that one's fear of pain and bodily injury maintains the brain's sense of threat, thereby also maintaining the pain response; EAET emphasizes that one's conditioned psychological state of stress and tension maintains a sense of threat, thereby maintaining the pain response. These three treatments have yet to be compared; it is unclear which psychological processes are most important to treating chronic pain. There is growing interest in single-session psychotherapy interventions. Studies have shown that just a single session of CBT or EAET can help individuals reduce their pain. PRT has yet to be condensed to a single-session intervention. This study will compare a single session of CBT, PRT, and EAET with a no-treatment control group to test whether 1) one treatment outperforms the others, and 2) different mechanisms/ approaches matter to chronic pain treatment.

Key Dates

Start date

Jul 15, 2025

Status verified

Jul 2025

Primary completion

Jun 30, 2026

Completion

Aug 31, 2026

Study Design

Enrollment

160 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Arms

• Experimental: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  A 90-minute single-session of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for chronic pain delivered remotely by doctoral students in clinical psychology
• Experimental: Pain Reprocessing Therapy
  A 90-minute single-session of Pain Reprocessing Therapy delivered remotely by doctoral students in clinical psychology
• Experimental: Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy
  A 90-minute single-session of Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy delivered remotely by doctoral students in clinical psychology
• No Intervention: Treatment As Usual (TAU)
  Participants assigned to TAU will not receive any additional psychosocial treatment beyond the other treatments they were receiving before enrolling in this study.

Primary Outcome Measure

Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) - Pain Severity [ Time Frame: Baseline to 1-week post-treatment and 1-month follow-up ]

Central Contacts

• Mark A Lumley, PhD
  313-577-2247
  [email protected]
• Marjorie Heule, MS
  [email protected]

Locations (2)

Find similar trials in Chicago, IL

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