Flexible Attention Sensory Training for Youth With Chronic Pain

Persistent Pain Clinical Trial

Official title:

Flexible Attention Sensory Training for Youth With Chronic Pain: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT06051305
• Other study ID #: 67616
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 16, 2023
• Est. completion date: March 1, 2025

Study information

• Verified date: November 2023
• Source: Stanford University
• Contact: Laura Simons, PhD
• Phone: (650) 723-6412
• Email: lesimons[@]stanford.edu
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine the feasibility and acceptability of gamified sensory rehabilitation training technology for children with chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Description:

The TrainPain devices allows patients with chronic pain to perform sensory rehabilitation training at home, in a gamified format. The system uses a temporary tactile discrimination task, which directly engages inhibitory functions of the somatosensory cortex. In this way, the game trains the brain's sensory system to be more precise. The technology's dual-probe system allows sensory stimuli to be delivered to multiple body locations, which trains patients to flexibly shift their attention towards and away from pain according to dynamic game-directed goals. The sensory training reduces hypervigilance towards painful body regions and enables flexible attention shifting to engage with daily goals. Last, the TrainPain system captures and quantifies performance over time, providing a breadth of intricate and precise data, thus allowing the research team to assess outcomes and mechanisms of training effects. In preliminary studies with adults, TrainPain is shown to be highly engaging, and effective at reducing pain in adults with widespread musculoskeletal (MSK) pain. The current pilot study intends to establish, for the first time, the feasibility and acceptability of using the TrainPain system among youth with chronic MSK pain.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 25
• Est. completion date: March 1, 2025
• Est. primary completion date: March 1, 2025
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 10 Years to 17 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosis of musculoskeletal pain including chronic regional pain syndrome
• English speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosis of neurological conditions such as seizures, cerebral palsy, developmental delay
• Severe affect disorders (e.g. severe depression/anxiety) from medical record review
• Chronic skin disease or topical allergies that would be worsened by the use of sensor tape

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Chronic Pain
• Persistent Pain

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Sensory Training
Participants will use gamified sensory training technology once daily for 8 weeks. This will involve participants completing a 15 minute sensory training session using the provided technology. The tool used in this study has two components. The first is a game that can be downloaded onto any smartphone device. The second component is two tactile devices that can be attached to the body.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Stanford Pediatric Pain Clinic	Menlo Park	California

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Stanford University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (11)

Borkovec, T. D., & Nau, S. D. (1972). Credibility of analogue therapy rationales. Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 3(4), 257-260.

Castarlenas E, Jensen MP, von Baeyer CL, Miro J. Psychometric Properties of the Numerical Rating Scale to Assess Self-Reported Pain Intensity in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review. Clin J Pain. 2017 Apr;33(4):376-383. doi: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000406. — View Citation

Devilly GJ, Borkovec TD. Psychometric properties of the credibility/expectancy questionnaire. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2000 Jun;31(2):73-86. doi: 10.1016/s0005-7916(00)00012-4. — View Citation

Ferguson, L., & Scheman, J. (2009). Patient global impression of change scores within the context of a chronic pain rehabilitation program. The Journal of Pain, 10(4), S73.

Gauntlett-Gilbert J, Alamire B, Duggan GB. Pain Acceptance in Adolescents: Development of a Short Form of the CPAQ-A. J Pediatr Psychol. 2019 May 1;44(4):453-462. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsy090. — View Citation

Mehling WE, Price C, Daubenmier JJ, Acree M, Bartmess E, Stewart A. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA). PLoS One. 2012;7(11):e48230. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048230. Epub 2012 Nov 1. — View Citation

Mendoza T, Mayne T, Rublee D, Cleeland C. Reliability and validity of a modified Brief Pain Inventory short form in patients with osteoarthritis. Eur J Pain. 2006 May;10(4):353-61. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpain.2005.06.002. Epub 2005 Jul 26. — View Citation

Mesaroli G, Campbell F, Hundert A, Birnie KA, Sun N, Davidge KM, Lalloo C, Davies-Chalmers C, Harris L, Stinson J. Development of a Screening Tool for Pediatric Neuropathic Pain and Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: Pediatric PainSCAN. Clin J Pain. 2021 Oct 12;38(1):15-22. doi: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000993. — View Citation

Roelofs J, Peters ML, McCracken L, Vlaeyen JWS. The pain vigilance and awareness questionnaire (PVAQ): further psychometric evaluation in fibromyalgia and other chronic pain syndromes. Pain. 2003 Feb;101(3):299-306. doi: 10.1016/S0304-3959(02)00338-X. — View Citation

Sekhon M, Cartwright M, Francis JJ. Development of a theory-informed questionnaire to assess the acceptability of healthcare interventions. BMC Health Serv Res. 2022 Mar 1;22(1):279. doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-07577-3. — View Citation

Vowles KE, McCracken LM, McLeod C, Eccleston C. The Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire: confirmatory factor analysis and identification of patient subgroups. Pain. 2008 Nov 30;140(2):284-291. doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2008.08.012. Epub 2008 Sep 27. — View Citation

* Note: There are 11 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Adverse events		Baseline through 8 weeks
Other	Treatment Expectancy and Credibility (TEC)	Participants (child) and parent expectations for treatment will be measured by the Treatment Expectancy and Creditability. The TEC is comprised of 6 items rated on a 0 to 10 Likert-scale assessing expectations related to the effectiveness of the current treatment. The TEC is completed by the patient at the end of the first treatment session and at the end of treatment (8 weeks). Higher scores indicate greater expectations for treatment effectiveness.	Baseline, discharge (at 8 weeks)
Primary	Acceptability of the Intervention- Net Promoter Score	Acceptability will be evaluated by examining mean promoter score (measured on 10-point Likert scale) post intervention. Range 0-10 (higher scores indicate more acceptability). Questionnaire will be administered to youth with chronic pain.	Discharge (at 8 weeks)
Primary	Acceptability of the Intervention- Qualitative Interview	Acceptability will also be assessed qualitatively at the end of treatment through interview questions related to acceptability, ease of use, comprehensibility, and suggestions for improvement. Survey responses will be reported categorically. Qualitative responses will be described and summarized.	Discharge (at 8 weeks)
Primary	Acceptability of the Intervention- Theoretical framework of acceptability (TFA) Questionnaire	Acceptability will also be assessed quantitatively at the end of treatment through a brief survey related to acceptability, ease of use, comprehensibility, and suggestions for improvement. Survey responses will be reported categorically. Responses are measured using a five-point Likert scale from 'Strongly disagree' to 'Strongly agree' with higher scores indicating greater acceptability.	Discharge (at 8 weeks)
Primary	Feasibility of the Intervention- Usage Metrics	Engagement will be assessed via collected use metrics (e.g. how long the app was played each day).	Baseline through discharge (at 8 weeks)
Secondary	Brief Pain Inventory Short Form (BPI)	The Brief Pain Inventory evaluates the severity of a patient's pain and the impact of this pain on the patient's daily functioning. Measured on a 10-point Likert scale (range 0-10), higher scores indicate greater pain interference. Questionnaire will be administered to youth with chronic pain.	Baseline through discharge (at 8 weeks) weekly and follow up (1-month)
Secondary	Pediatric PainSCAN	Screening tool for Nerve Pain and Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) for children and teens. PainSCAN is a tool used for screening of type of chronic pain condition, and results will be used to gauge pain type and severity.	Baseline, discharge (at 8 weeks), and follow up (1-month)
Secondary	Bodily Threat Monitoring Scale (BTMS)	Bodily threat monitoring will be assessed via a 19-item self-report measure. Higher scores indicate greater propensity to monitor the body for threatening signs and symptoms.	Baseline, discharge (at 8 weeks), and follow up (1-month)
Secondary	Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC) Scale	Single question asking participants to rate how their condition has changed since a specified point in time, with lower scores indicating greater degree of improvement.	Baseline, discharge (at 8 weeks), and follow up (1-month)
Secondary	Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire (PVAQ)	The PVAQ is a 16-item measure of attention to pain. Participants are asked to consider behavior over the past 2-weeks and indicate how frequently (0, never; 5, always) an item was true. Higher scores indicate higher pain vigilance and awareness.	Baseline, discharge (at 8 weeks), and follow up (1-month)
Secondary	Child Pain Acceptance Questionnaire (CPAQ)	Child report on the Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire for Adolescents-short form will be used to assess pain acceptance in the child. The CPAQ is an 8-item measure consisting of two subscales: Activity Engagement (4 items) and Pain Willingness (4 items). Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (Never True) to 4 (Always True) and yield a total score for each subscale ranging from 0-16. Higher scores indicate greater Activity Engagement and greater Pain Willingness.	Baseline, discharge (at 8 weeks), and follow up (1-month)
Secondary	Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness Youth (MAIA-Y)	The MAIA-Y is an 8-scale state-trait questionnaire with 32 items. It measures multiple dimensions of interoception. Scoring is at the individual scale-level, with higher scores equated with more bodily sensation awareness. The individual score is also given as a percentile relative to normative sample, with extreme percentiles (>10, 90<) of clinical significance. Three scales from this measures are being administered: Attention Regulation, Self-Regulation, Trusting.	Baseline, discharge (at 8 weeks), and follow up (1-month)