Development of a Pain Rehabilitation Program for Chronic Pain After SCI

Feasibility of a New Digital Pain Rehabilitation Program for People With SCI

Pain rehabilitation programs are essential for optimal treatment of chronic pain and are usually based on the biopsychosocial model. This is, however, not standard care for people with chronic pain after a spinal cord injury (SCI) due to a biomedical focused perspective of SCI and lack of adapted programs.

The aims of this feasibility study:

1. Develop a new digital pain rehabilitation program, adapted for the needs of people living with an SCI.
2. To investigate the feasibility and acceptability of a new digital pain rehabilitation program.

This study follows the guidelines of Medical Research Council for complex interventions and the proposed iterative feasibility process to improve and prepare the intervention for future testing in an RCT study. The research group will, toghether with a reference groups, develop a digital intervention porposal. The program will be a team-based, goal-oriented program for patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) and chronic pain.

In this study, eligible participants are included in an 8 week pain rehabilitation program. The program is developed through user-involvement i.e. together with clinicians (experienced in pain rehabilitation and/or SCI rehabilitation), stakeholders, researchers and individuals with SCI. The program will include video material for education, home exercises and group discussions led by clinicians with long experience in pain rehabilitation and SCI.

The participants will fill in self-assessed questionaries at baseline and after the finish of the program about their pain, sleep, mood and quality of life. After the program some of the participants will be asked to participate in semi-structured interviews about how they navigate and engage with different components of the program. The patients will be recruited during a rutine follow up at an SCI clinic.

Seven factors will be studied to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the program, based on set goals according to the Traffic Light method.

Inclusion Criteria:

• two years since injury
• Stable pain medication?

Exclusion Criteria:

• severe cognitive impairment
• Alcohol or drug abuse
• does not understand Swedish