Clinical trial NCT00926588: Stepped Care to Optimize Pain Care Effectiveness
Official title: Stepped Care to Optimize Pain Care Effectiveness (SCOPE)
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: PHASE3
Conditions: Pain
Keywords: Pain
Telecare
Collaborative care
Lead sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Sponsor class: FED
First posted: 2009-06-23
Enrollment: 250
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: Pain is the most common physical symptom in primary care, accounting for an enormous burden in terms of patient suffering, quality of life, work and social disability, and health care and societal costs. Pain is particularly prevalent among veterans. Four major barriers to optimal care include underdetection of pain, inadequate initial treatment, failure to monitor adherence and symptom response, and failure to adjust treatment in patients not responding or intolerant of initial therapy. Therefore, we propose to conduct the Stepped Care to Optimize Pain care Effectiveness (SCOPE) study, a randomized clinical effectiveness trial in primary care.

Detailed description: SCOPE will enroll 250 primary care veterans with persistent (3 months or longer) musculoskeletal pain of moderate severity, and randomize them to either the stepped care intervention or usual care control group. The intervention will be based upon the empirically-validated Three-Component Model which in SCOPE will involve collaboration between the primary care physician, a nurse pain care manager, and a supervising physician pain specialist. SCOPE will involve a telemedicine approach coupling automated home-based symptom monitoring with telephone-based nurse care management. The intervention will consist of optimized analgesic management using a stepped care approach to drug selection, symptom monitoring, dose adjustment, and switching or adding medications. All subjects will undergo comprehensive outcome assessment at baseline, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months by interviewers blinded to treatment group. Our principal aim is to test whether SCOPE is more effective than usual care in reducing pain as measured by the Brief Pain Inventory. Secondarily, we will test the impact on other pain outcomes (e.g., severity, self-efficacy, use of self-management strategies), emotional functioning, health-related quality of life, and treatment satisfaction.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

SCOPE will enroll 250 primary care veterans with persistent (3 months or longer) musculoskeletal pain of moderate severity and randomize them to either the stepped care intervention or usual care control group.

Exclusion Criteria:

Individuals who:

* have filed a pain-related disability claim in the last 6 months;
* do not speak English;
* have moderately severe cognitive impairment;
* have schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or other psychosis;
* are actively suicidal;
* have current illicit drug use; or
* have an anticipated life expectancy of less than 12 months.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Brief Pain Inventory (Pain)
timeFrame: 1 year
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Indianapolis
country: United States
facility: Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN
state: Indiana
Study officials:
affiliation: Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN
name: Kurt Kroenke, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Kroenke K, Krebs E, Wu J, Bair MJ, Damush T, Chumbler N, York T, Weitlauf S, McCalley S, Evans E, Barnd J, Yu Z. Stepped Care to Optimize Pain care Effectiveness (SCOPE) trial study design and sample characteristics. Contemp Clin Trials. 2013 Mar;34(2):270-81. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2012.11.008. Epub 2012 Dec 8.
citation: Kroenke K, Outcalt S, Krebs E, Bair MJ, Wu J, Chumbler N, Yu Z. Association between anxiety, health-related quality of life and functional impairment in primary care patients with chronic pain. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2013 Jul-Aug;35(4):359-65. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2013.03.020. Epub 2013 Apr 29.
citation: Chumbler NR, Kroenke K, Outcalt S, Bair MJ, Krebs E, Wu J, Yu Z. Association between sense of coherence and health-related quality of life among primary care patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2013 Dec 26;11:216. doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-11-216.
citation: Kroenke K, Krebs EE, Wu J, Yu Z, Chumbler NR, Bair MJ. Telecare collaborative management of chronic pain in primary care: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2014 Jul 16;312(3):240-8. doi: 10.1001/jama.2014.7689.
citation: Kroenke K, Wu J, Yu Z, Bair MJ, Kean J, Stump T, Monahan PO. Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety and Depression Scale: Initial Validation in Three Clinical Trials. Psychosom Med. 2016 Jul-Aug;78(6):716-27. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000322.
citation: Outcalt SD, Kroenke K, Krebs EE, Chumbler NR, Wu J, Yu Z, Bair MJ. Chronic pain and comorbid mental health conditions: independent associations of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression with pain, disability, and quality of life. J Behav Med. 2015 Jun;38(3):535-43. doi: 10.1007/s10865-015-9628-3. Epub 2015 Mar 19.
citation: Kroenke K, Yu Z, Wu J, Kean J, Monahan PO. Operating characteristics of PROMIS four-item depression and anxiety scales in primary care patients with chronic pain. Pain Med. 2014 Nov;15(11):1892-901. doi: 10.1111/pme.12537. Epub 2014 Aug 19.