An intensive, 12-week pain self-management program has been shown to reduce pain and improve mood in a large clinical trial of people with both HIV and chronic pain, according to a paper published July 15 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The research, led by Jessica Merlin, professor of medicine and director of the CHallenges in Managing and Preventing Pain (CHAMPP) Clinical Research Center, School of Medicine, found that participants in the Skills to Manage Pain (STOMP) program also reported more confidence in their ability to manage pain both immediately and three months after the study period.
“We know that behavioral interventions work well for managing pain for other conditions, but very little attention has been paid to pain self-management for people with HIV,” said Merlin. “STOMP is specifically tailored to this population and now we know that it is effective.”
STOMP consists of one-on-one sessions with a social worker or health educator and group sessions led by peer interventionists, who also live with HIV and successfully manage their pain. Individual sessions include initial pain education and a patient’s choice of subsequent sessions, each geared toward a different topic: physical activity, weight loss, relaxation, sleep, building self-worth, talking with friends and family about pain, and taking prescribed opioids. Group sessions focus on community building and knowledge sharing among the participants and peer facilitator.
Merlin and colleagues began developing STOMP in 2014. Pilot studies found the program to be both feasible and cost-effective. The randomized clinical trial of 278 participants was conducted at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where Merlin earned her PhD in health education and promotion. Both institutions have large HIV clinics. Participants in the trial were HIV-positive and reported at least moderate pain lasting for at least three months. Most reported multisite pain and nearly one-quarter engaged in long-term opioid use for pain control.
“The data shows that STOMP is an effective intervention for a population at greater risk of opioid use disorder,” said Merlin, who is board-certified in addiction medicine and regularly treats patients at UPMC’s Internal Medicine-Recovery Engagement Program. “However, we observed a waning effect after several months so further research is needed to determine whether additional interventions should be recommended.”
Other authors on the paper were Katie Fitzgerald Jones of VA Boston Healthcare System; Dustin M. Long of Wake Forest University; Matthew J. Bair of Indiana University; Lindsay Browne, Kendall Conder, Amy L. Durr, Claire E. Farel, Mirielle Leone, Latoya Mullen, and Sonia Napravnik, all of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Greer Burkholder, Kiko King, Bernadette Johnson, and Tammi Thomas, all of the University of Alabama at Birmingham; Jane Liebschutz, Olivio J. Clay, and Sarah Margaret Orris, all of Pitt; and William Demonte of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health.
This work was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (1R01MH115754-01A1). Merlin is supported by NIH grant K24DA056837.
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