Clinical trial NCT05148364: Pain Resilience and Spiritual Health in Low Back Pain
Official title: How Pain Resilience and Spiritual Health Affect the Pain Experience in Patients With Low Back Pain
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Conditions: Low Back Pain
Keywords: spirituality
low back pain
Lead sponsor: Changhua Christian Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2021-12-08
Enrollment: 15
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 20
Maximum age (years): 100
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: CASE_ONLY
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Participants should have persistent low back pain that has lasted for at least three months. Pain is a very subjective experience, so it is not necessary that the participant has to be diagnosed by a physician.

Brief summary: In the management of chronic pain, it is very important to reaffirm the patient's self-worth and ability through psychological support and spiritual care. The role of spiritual consultant is to provide spiritual consultation and spiritual care, so that the medical team can truly implement a whole-person care of the patient including the body, mind, and family. Pain resilience of chronic pain patients' has been found to be a different construct from the general resilience in the field of chronic diseases. Pain resilience emphasizes the cognitive/emotional positivity and behavior persistence of pain patients' when facing pain. So far, there has been no research on the theme of "pain resilience and spiritual health". Researchers have seen the necessity of care and assistance for patients with chronic low back pain. Hence, this study would like to explore "how pain resilience and spiritual health affect the pain experience of patients with chronic low back pain ".

Research objectives: 1. To understand how spiritual health and pain resilience interact to influence the the pain experience in patients with chronic low back pain and 2. To understand how spiritual health and pain resilience interact and influence they way how patients with chronic low back pain cope with pain.

Method: This research plan will be implemented upon obtaining the approval from IRB. An estimated 15 cases will be enrolled. Through in-depth interviews and collection of observational data during interviews, the interviewer will record, transcribe and analyze the narratives and experience descriptions.

The results of this study can become an important basis for clinical care of patients with chronic low back pain.

Detailed description: In the management of chronic pain, it is very important to reaffirm the patient's self-worth and ability through psychological support and spiritual care. The role of spiritual consultant is to provide spiritual consultation and spiritual care, so that the medical team can truly implement a whole-person care of the patient including the body, mind, and family. Pain resilience of chronic pain patients' has been found to be a different construct from the general resilience in the field of chronic diseases. Pain resilience emphasizes the cognitive/emotional positivity and behavior persistence of pain patients' when facing pain. So far, there has been no research on the theme of "pain resilience and spiritual health". Researchers have seen the necessity of care and assistance for patients with chronic low back pain. Hence, this study would like to explore "how pain resilience and spiritual health affect the pain experience of patients with chronic low back pain ".

Research objectives: 1. To understand how spiritual health and pain resilience interact to influence the the pain experience in patients with chronic low back pain and 2. To understand how spiritual health and pain resilience interact and influence they way how patients with chronic low back pain cope with pain.

Method: This research plan will be implemented upon obtaining the approval from IRB. An estimated 15 cases will be enrolled. Through in-depth interviews and collection of observational data during interviews, the interviewer will record, transcribe and analyze the narratives and experience descriptions.

A spiritual consultant and a psychologist will interview the participants about their experiences of chronic low back pain, how they interpret their pain experience and how they cope with the persistent pain. Each participant will be interviewed individually.

Questions related to the following three aspects will be asked:

1. Attributes: describe the changes in your personality, mood, and general happiness you have observed after you starting having chronic low back pain.
2. Pain resilience: How would you describe this persisting pain experience? How do you arrange your daily activity? What do you do to deal with this persistent pain?
3. Spirituality: As a person with chronic low back pain, how do you interpret this pain experience? Do you seek connections with higher powers (such as powers from religion) when you are desperate because of pain? Since the pain is chronic and persistent, it might not go away, how would you define your life?

Plan of analysis: The current study will adopt interpretative phenomenological analysis to to examine the pain experience of the participants. After data was collected through interview, transcripts will be coded in detail. In the process of analyzing the text, the investigators will categorize the text into themes.

The results of this study can become an important basis for clinical care of patients with chronic low back pain.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Individual with non-malignant persistent low back pain that has lasted for at least three months.
* Individual that is willing to undergo interview about their pain experience.
* Individual ages between 20 and 100.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Individual with cognitive or psychological impairments that may compromise the ability to understand the interviewing questionnaire.
* Individual younger that 20 years old.
* The pain is clearly related to spinal cancer.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Pain resilience scale (PRS)
timeFrame: 8 weeks
measure: Spirituality
timeFrame: 8 weeks
measure: Patient Health Questionnaire-9
timeFrame: 8 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Chang Hua
country: Taiwan
facility: Changhua Christian Hospital
Study officials:
affiliation: Changhua Christian Hospital
name: Ling-Jun Liu, MSc
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Slepian PM, Ankawi B, Himawan LK, France CR. Development and Initial Validation of the Pain Resilience Scale. J Pain. 2016 Apr;17(4):462-72. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2015.12.010. Epub 2015 Dec 31.
citation: Ankawi B, Slepian PM, Himawan LK, France CR. Validation of the Pain Resilience Scale in a Chronic Pain Sample. J Pain. 2017 Aug;18(8):984-993. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2017.03.013. Epub 2017 Apr 18.
citation: Gonzalez CE, Okunbor JI, Parker R, Owens MA, White DM, Merlin JS, Goodin BR. Pain-Specific Resilience in People Living With HIV and Chronic Pain: Beneficial Associations With Coping Strategies and Catastrophizing. Front Psychol. 2019 Sep 6;10:2046. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02046. eCollection 2019.