Telehealth Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Chronic Pain
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are evidence-based treatments for chronic pain but implementing them on a large scale is challenging. These investigators conducted a randomized trial comparing eight-week group and self-paced telehealth MBIs to usual care for veterans with chronic pain. The group MBI was done via videoconference. The self-paced MBI was similar but completed on-demand and was supplemented by three individual facilitator calls. The primary outcome was pain-related function using a pain interference scale administered at 10 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year.
A total of 811 veterans were randomized and 694 (86%) completed the trial. Averaged across all three time points, pain interference scores were significantly lower for both MBIs compared to usual care. Both MBI arms also had significantly better scores on the secondary outcomes of pain intensity, patient global impression of change, physical function, fatigue, sleep disturbance, social roles and activities, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Group and self-paced MBIs did not significantly differ from one another. The authors concluded that relatively low-resource telehealth-based MBIs could help improve the implementation of nonpharmacological pain treatment.
Burgess DJ, Calvert C, Hagel Campbell EM, et al. JAMA Internal Medicine 2024;184:1163-73
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