Emotional Recovery Program Trial
What is the research study about?
Chronic pain is more than a painful experience, it is highly emotional. People with chronic pain consistently report increasing and uncontrollable levels of anger, worry, fear and sadness. These negative emotional states contribute to a cycle of worsening pain and emotional difficulties including anxiety and depression.
Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) are investigating an online emotional recovery program for chronic pain.
What does the research involve?
We will investigate whether a new approach to pain management, an online skills training program in emotional regulation, can help people with chronic pain manage the physical and emotional aspects of their pain.
The 9-week program, iDBT-Pain (Online Dialectical Behavioural Therapy Skills Training for Chronic Pain), involves participating in eight 90 minute weekly group-based emotional skills training sessions over the internet using Zoom, and daily training using a web app to watch videos and complete tasks on a smart phone. Participation also means completing a series of questionnaires, before and after the nine-week program and three months later, meaning that the trial will be completed in approximately 5 months.
The Participant Information Statement (PIS) explains the trial in detail.
We are not recruiting for this trial at the moment, but if you would like to register your interest to be contacted in 2025 and to receive details about the trial and participation please complete the form.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact our research team: neurorecoveryresearch@unsw.edu.au.
This trial has been approved by the UNSW Human Research Ethics Committee (Ethics approval: HC220078)