Objectives: Behavioral treatments for chronic pain have been associated with positive outcomes, but they are often time consuming in nature.... Show moreObjectives: Behavioral treatments for chronic pain have been associated with positive outcomes, but they are often time consuming in nature. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of a brief behavioral treatment for chronic pain and compare Brief Action Planning used in conjunction with treatment as usual (BAP + TAU) to TAU, on changes in pain severity, pain interference, pain self-efficacy, quality of life, and anxiety and depression in a heterogeneous sample of chronic pain patients. Methods: A total of 172 participants were recruited from an urban pain clinic. Eighty-five participants were quasi-randomly assigned to the BAP + TAU group and 87 participants were quasi-randomly assigned to the TAU control group. After completing T1 measures, two iterations of the BAP protocol were delivered to the intervention group by a trained clinician over the phone, with two weeks in between iterations. The TAU group received check-in calls, collecting brief mood and pain scores, to control for clinician contact. All participants completed T2 measures following the last phone call. Validated measures were used at T1 and T2 to examine participant outcomes. Results: Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were used to test the primary hypotheses that there would be a Group x Time interaction, on pain severity, pain interference, pain self-efficacy, quality of life (QOL), and anxiety and depression, such that participants assigned to the BAP + TAU group would endorse improved scores from T1 to T2, while TAU participants would not. Results showed a significant Group x Time interaction on pain severity and anxiety and depression. However, there was not a significant Group x Time interaction on pain interference, pain self-efficacy, or QOL. Discussion: These findings provide preliminary support for the effectiveness of BAP, as an adjunctive treatment to TAU, when provided by a trained clinician, as a treatment for reducing pain severity and anxiety and depression, in a heterogeneous chronic pain population. These results advance the current BAP literature, providing preliminary support for using BAP with individuals with a wide variety of chronic pain diagnoses. Show less
