Abstract
Chronic pain is a serious health issue worldwide and is a prominent issue in military and police populations. Chronic pain sufferers often find it difficult to attend in-person treatment sessions for a variety of reasons. Utilizing the internet may allow for greater accessibility to interventions that cater to their specific needs. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluated the efficacy of an 8-week online ACT-based intervention for chronic pain within a military and police outpatient sample. A total of 29 patients with chronic pain were randomly assigned to treatment or waitlist control conditions, and completed pain-related measures pretreatment, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up. Positive outcomes for pain acceptance, fear of movement/re-injury, and pain disability in favor of the treatment condition were found, with interaction effects ranging from moderate to large (i.e., ηp2 = 0.11–0.32). Improvements in pain-related variables were maintained at the 3-month follow-up. Baseline PTSD and depression scores were not found to be meaningful predictors of changes in primary outcome variables from pre- to post-treatment. We conclude that an online ACT-based intervention can be effective for military and police suffering from chronic pain, though limitations to the study suggest further research is warranted.
Disclosure statement
Authors do not have any financial interests or benefits to declare.