Phase 1 Pilot of a Pragmatic Trial of EAET for Veterans With Chronic Pain

Summary

About one in three Veterans lives with long-term (chronic) pain, and many of them also struggle with past trauma and mental health issues like depression, anxiety, or PTSD. Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) is a type of talk therapy that helps people understand and express their emotions, especially those linked to past trauma. This therapy has been shown to help reduce pain and improve mental health.

So far, multiple studies have tested EAET in both Veterans and civilians, and the results have been promising. EAET has helped people feel less pain, move better, and experience fewer mental health symptoms. Because of these strong results, the U.S. Department of Health \& Human Services named EAET a Best Practice for managing pain in 2019.

Two earlier studies at a VA hospital in Los Angeles found that EAET worked even better than another well-known therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic pain (CBT-CP) for older Veterans. However, those studies were done in tightly controlled settings. Now, researchers want to see if EAET works just as well when it's used in everyday healthcare settings, by different types of doctors and therapists.

This new project will happen in two parts, but we will only focus on the first part in this entry: In the first part (a 1-year phase), doctors and therapists at up to 7 VA hospitals across the country will be trained to use EAET. They will then try it out with Veterans to see how well it works and how easy it is to use in real clinics. Veterans, doctors, and other staff will be asked for feedback to learn what helps or gets in the way of using EAET.

Conditions

• Musculoskeletal Pain

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET)

Talk therapy that helps people understand and express their feelings, especially emotions linked to past stress or trauma. The goal is to help reduce long-term pain by dealing with hidden emotional struggles that may be affecting the body.

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain (CBT-CP)

Talk therapy that helps people learn how their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors affect their pain. It teaches skills to manage pain, reduce stress, and improve daily life.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (South Texas) ADRC

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Colorado, Denver

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Utah

  collaborator OTHER

• VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System

  collaborator FED

• Yale University

  collaborator OTHER

• Greater Los Angeles Veterans Research and Education Foundation

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of California, Los Angeles

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-01-02

Primary Completion

2027-07-31

Completion

2027-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations