Psychosocial Characteristics of Candidates for Implantable Pain Devices: Validation of an Assessment Model

Abstract

Aim: To provide a detailed profile of Veteran and community patients with chronic pain who completed preprocedural psychological evaluations for implantable pain devices. Patients & methods: A total of 157 candidates completed a preimplantable pain device evaluation between June 2018 and October 2019 with a pain psychologist that included a structured interview, elicitation of patient-centered goals for the implantable device, and psychometric testing. Results: Candidates demonstrated moderate to high rates of sleep impairment (73%), depressive symptoms (62%), anxiety symptoms (61%), pain catastrophizing (37%), cognitive impairment screen (30%) and somatic symptoms (24%). Conclusion: Candidates for implantable pain devices report high rates of mood, sleep and cognitive impairment, reinforcing the value of preprocedural psychological evaluations.

Keywords::

• chronic pain
• implantable therapies
• pain psychology
• psychological guidelines
• psychometrics
• psychosocial assessments
• spinal cord stimulation

Author contributions

All the listed authors had full access to the data for this manuscript and contributed directly to the development of the manuscript through writing, editorial review and statistical analyses. The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. AM Grinberg, T Rutledge and HM Gould conducted all study analyses and assembled the tables and figures for the manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

KV Chakravarthy is a consultant to Abbott, Medtronic, Nalu Medical, SPR Therapeutics, Bioness and Oska Wellness. He has stock options in Nalu Medical and Oska Wellness. He is a founder of Newrom Biomedical. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.