Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy for People With Persistent Pain Following Orthopedic Trauma

Chronic Pain Clinical Trial

Official title: Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy for People With Persistent Pain Following Orthopedic Trauma: A Pilot Feasibility Study

Status Not yet recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this single-arm trial is to determine the feasibility of emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET) for individuals with persistent pain following orthopedic trauma. As part of this study, participants will be asked to attend weekly EAET treatment sessions and complete assessments (including pre-treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up) consisting of questionnaires and sensory testing procedures.

Clinical Trial Description

Orthopedic trauma, resulting in severe injuries such as multiple fractures or amputation, occurs in approximately 3 million people annually in the United States; about half of these people experience persistent pain and psychological distress (depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] symptoms) 6 to 12 months post injury. Pain and distress exacerbate one another, are likely to persist, and relate to disability: half of patients report substantial disability 7 years post trauma. Medical interventions such as surgery promote survival; however, there is an urgent need to develop targeted psychological interventions to treat these disabling symptoms.

Few psychological interventions are available to treat pain and distress following orthopedic trauma. Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) is an 8-week psychological intervention recently developed for chronic pain conditions characterized by central sensitization. EAET is unique in treating pain and mood by targeting emotion regulation processes related to traumatic life events. Such events are ubiquitous following orthopedic trauma and recent findings show that EAET results in improvements in pain and mood; thus, it may be uniquely effective to address the needs of orthopedic trauma survivors. However, there are documented barriers to implementing psychological interventions in this population, so the feasibility of EAET is unknown. The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of delivery and assessment of EAET for orthopedic trauma survivors with persistent pain in a single-arm trial. As part of this study, participants will be asked to do the following things:

• Attend EAET treatment with a mental health provider. Session will last around 60 minutes each.

• Complete baseline, post-treatment, and follow-up assessments. These assessments will ask patients to complete questionnaires related to physical and emotional health, as well as receive sensory testing in order to examine pain processing. The questionnaires will take 20-25 minutes. The sensory testing procedures will take about 20 minutes. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Chronic Pain
• Musculoskeletal Injury
• Orthopaedic Trauma
• Wounds and Injuries

• NCT number: NCT05989230
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Johns Hopkins University
• Contact: Rachel Aaron, PhD
• Phone: 410-502-2428
• Email: raaron4@jhmi.edu
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: August 2024
• Completion date: December 2026