Pain Neuroscience Education and Exercise in High School Students With Chronic Idiopathic Neck Pain

Summary

Musculoskeletal pain can affect up to 40% of children and adolescents. Neck pain (NP) is one of the most prevalent painful conditions and evidence suggests that its prevalence has increased in recent decades in adolescents aged 16 to 18 years, from 22.9% in 1991 to 29.5% in 2011. Interventions based on pain neuroscience education have emerged as promising strategies in chronic pain conditions.In adults this intervention has been explored in many pain conditions, including musculoskeletal pain, but there is only one pilot study in adolescents with chronic NP and one case study in adolescents with fibromyalgia.

Thus, the main objective of the present study is:

(i) To compare the effectiveness of an education program based on pain neuroscience education and exercise versus exercise alone, in decreasing pain intensity in secondary school students with chronic and idiopathic NP immediately after the intervention and at 6 months.

The secondary objectives are to:

i) Compare the effectiveness of these programs immediately after the intervention and at 6 months in i) disability, ii) sleep, iii) pain catastrophizing, iv) fear of movement, v) self-efficacy, vi) central sensitization vii) the strength of the deep neck flexors and extensors muscles and stabilizers of the scapula; and viii) the pressure pain threshold between the two intervention groups;

ii) Explore possible predictors of response to treatment.

Conditions

• Chronic Neck Pain

Interventions

OTHER

Pain Neuroscience Education and Exercise

The incorporation of the exercise in this group will be gradual, in order to decrease the education component and increase the exercise component (up to 45/60 minutes). The 1st session will be only PNE and will last approximately 45 minutes. In the 2nd session, there will be 30 minutes of PNE and the remaining 15 minutes of exercise. In the following 4th and 6th sessions, 15 minutes of each session will be used to clarify doubts and emphasize PNE concepts and strategies. The 8th session will include exercises only. In WhatsApp sessions, in addition to the video with the exercises, participants will receive activities about the PNE.

OTHER

Exercise

The exercise group will perform exercises in all sessions (45 minutes of exercise in face-to-face sessions). In WhatsApp sessions, participants will receive a video with exercises to perform at home.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal

  collaborator OTHER

• Aveiro University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Rosa Andias, MD · University of Aveiro

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

13 Years

Max Age

20 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-10-01

Primary Completion

2020-06-30

Completion

2020-11-30

Countries

• Portugal

Study Locations