MedTrace Logo

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Chronic Pain Self-Management Within the Context of Opioid Reduction: The EMPOWER Study

NCT03445988 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 1462

Last updated 2025-03-24

Study results available
· View outcomes & findings →

Summary

The proposed study will fill several critical gaps in evidence that are preventing patients and physicians from making informed decisions about their pain care. This project will provide patients taking opioids and physicians with the specific evidence they need to choose the most effective route to pain control, reduced pain interference, opioid reduction, and improved role function, thereby improving patient care.

The aims of this study are to (1) reduce or contain prescription opioid use while maintaining pain control and (2) compare the effectiveness of the Chronic Pain Self-Management Program (CPSMP), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for chronic pain (pain-CBT), and no behavioral treatment within the context of patient-centered collaborative opioid tapering (Taper Only).

The acronym EMPOWER stands for Effective Management of Pain and Opioid-Free Ways to Enhance Relief.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

A trained psychologist delivers pain-CBT to individual patients or groups of patients with chronic pain. Group treatment is delivered across 8 weekly sessions that last for 2 hours each. Pain-CBT incorporates interactive discussion, practice of relaxation training, action planning, and home exercises into each session. Pain-CBT is effective for reducing pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, depression and social impacts.

BEHAVIORAL

Chronic Pain Self Management Program

The CPSMP is similar to pain-CBT in format and content but is peer-led, and is effective across pain conditions (e.g., back pain, arthritis) for improving pain and pain self-efficacy. The CPSMP consists of six weekly 2-hour group sessions in which two peer co-leaders provide patient education about pain, effective self-management, pain impacts, and other symptoms from a highly structured manual. Similar to pain-CBT, CPSMP incorporates interactive discussion, practice of relaxation training, action planning, and home exercises into each session

OTHER

Taper Only

Participants allocated to 'Taper Only' will engage in a physician-guided, patient-centered opioid tapering program without additional behavioral intervention.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

    collaborator OTHER

  • Stanford University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Beth Darnall, Ph.D. · Stanford University

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
85 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2018-07-24
Primary Completion
2023-11-06
Completion
2023-11-06

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases
Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03445988 on ClinicalTrials.gov