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Contemporary Pain Science Education and Physician Assistant Students

NCT07735663 · Status: COMPLETED · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 40

Last updated 2026-07-30

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial was to learn whether a pain science education session could improve physician assistant students' understanding of pain and their beliefs about people with persistent pain.

The main questions were:

Did students' knowledge of how pain works change after the education session? Did students' beliefs about the relationship between pain, physical impairment, and activity change after the session? Were any changes maintained during the remainder of the physician assistant program?

Participants were students enrolled in one physician assistant master's degree program. All students received a four-hour pain science education session and a 30-minute hands-on laboratory session as part of their curriculum. The session explained that pain is affected by biological, psychological, and social factors. It also included case discussions, small-group activities, pain-related screening tools, and demonstrations of selected pain management techniques.

Participants completed questionnaires before the session, immediately afterward, and at three later points during the program. The final questionnaires were completed shortly before graduation. Researchers compared questionnaire scores across these five time points to examine changes in pain knowledge and pain-related beliefs.

Conditions

  • Focus of Study Pain Knowledge

Interventions

OTHER

Pain education

Participants received a 4.5-hour multimodal contemporary pain science education session consisting of four hours of classroom instruction and a 30-minute laboratory. The classroom portion used lecture, small-group activities, discussion, and case-based application to address pain neuroscience, pain mechanisms, biopsychosocial contributors to persistent pain, guideline-informed care, screening tools, nocebo language, and potential harms of unnecessary imaging, medications, procedures, and referrals. The laboratory provided hands-on exposure to laterality recognition, quantitative sensory testing, and mirror-based techniques.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Belmont University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Sue E Curfman, PT, DHSc · Belmont University

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2019-09-07
Primary Completion
2021-08-19
Completion
2021-08-19

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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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 NCT07735663 on ClinicalTrials.gov