Phase 1 Pilot of a Pragmatic Trial of EAET for Veterans With Chronic Pain

Part of paid clinical trials in Los Angeles, California.

Sponsor
University of California, Los Angeles
Study ID
NCT07218757
Status
Recruiting
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Conditions

  • Musculoskeletal Pain

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
18 Years - N/A
Healthy Volunteers
Not accepted

Interventions

  • Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) — BEHAVIORAL
    Talk therapy that helps people understand and express their feelings, especially emotions linked to past stress or trauma. The goal is to help reduce long-term pain by dealing with hidden emotional struggles that may be affecting the body.
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain (CBT-CP) — BEHAVIORAL
    Talk therapy that helps people learn how their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors affect their pain. It teaches skills to manage pain, reduce stress, and improve daily life.

Study Details

About one in three Veterans lives with long-term (chronic) pain, and many of them also struggle with past trauma and mental health issues like depression, anxiety, or PTSD. Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) is a type of talk therapy that helps people understand and express their emotions, especially those linked to past trauma. This therapy has been shown to help reduce pain and improve mental health. So far, multiple studies have tested EAET in both Veterans and civilians, and the results have been promising. EAET has helped people feel less pain, move better, and experience fewer mental health symptoms. Because of these strong results, the U.S. Department of Health \& Human Services named EAET a Best Practice for managing pain in 2019. Two earlier studies at a VA hospital in Los Angeles found that EAET worked even better than another well-known therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic pain (CBT-CP) for older Veterans. However, those studies were done in tightly controlled settings. Now, researchers want to see if EAET works just as well when it's used in everyday healthcare settings, by different types of doctors and therapists. This new project will happen in two parts, but we will only focus on the first part in this entry: In the first part (a 1-year phase), doctors and therapists at up to 7 VA hospitals across the country will be trained to use EAET. They will then try it out with Veterans to see how well it works and how easy it is to use in real clinics. Veterans, doctors, and other staff will be asked for feedback to learn what helps or gets in the way of using EAET.

Key Dates

Start date
Jan 2, 2026
Status verified
Feb 2026
Primary completion
Jul 31, 2027
Completion
Jul 31, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment
84 participants (estimated)
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT

Arms

  • Experimental: Emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET)
    Seeks to reduce physical (e.g., pain) and emotional (e.g., depression, anxiety) symptoms by helping individuals become aware of their emotions, express them, and resolve emotional conflicts. It will use techniques such as writing about stress, role playing how to handle difficult relationships, recognizing and expressing anger and other feelings, and being more open with others.
  • Active Comparator: Cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic pain (CBT-CP)
    Seeks to help individuals function better and improve symptoms by teaching various cognitive and behavioral skills to manage symptoms. It will use techniques such as relaxation training, engaging in pleasant activities, pacing yourself, and changing unhelpful ways of thinking.

Primary Outcome Measure

Change in "pain severity" from baseline to 10 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months post baseline [ Time Frame: Baseline, along with 10 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months post baseline ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
University of California, Los AngelesLos AngelesCalifornia90095
Brandon C Yarns C Yarns, MD, MS
[email protected]
310 268 3304

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