Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain in Cancer Survivors

Not Applicable

Completed

Interventions: Behavioral: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Other: Treatment as Usual

Brief Summary: A study to help manage chronic pain in cancer survivors through Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) after undergoing active cancer treatment, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation.

Detailed Description: This study attempts to apply effective pain management interventions from other chronic pain populations to those of cancer related populations. It will assess the ability of ACT to alleviate chronic cancer related pain and evaluate ease of implementation of treatment. Patients will be allocated to either the intervention group (ACT) or the control group, getting them the usual course of treatment.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Provision to sign and date the consent form
Stated willingness to comply with all study procedures and be available for the duration of the study
Be a male or female aged 18-100
Have pathology confirmed diagnosis of a solid tumor cancer
Be three or more months out from active cancer treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation)
Endorses experiencing pain for three or more months prior to eligibility screening
Indicates moderate to severe difficulties with pain interference as related to their cancer experience, with a score of 4 or higher on the pain interference item from the Chronic Pain Grading Questionnaire
Shows no evidence of cancer disease (NED) or with stable, chronic disease under "watchful waiting"
Fluent in English
Psychiatric stability as assessed by chart review and study personnel (e.g., not exhibiting symptoms consistent with diagnoses of serious mental illness such as active psychosis or mania)

Exclusion Criteria

Having pain that can be solely attributed to a diagnosis outside of their cancer experience
Presenting with barriers to group participation (e.g., social anxiety) or when group-based provision of care would impede participant's treatment or that of other group members
Patients with a diagnosis of malignant neoplasm of the brain (ICD-10 C71) or malignant neoplasm of spinal cord, cranial nerves and other parts of central nervous system (ICD-10 C72).

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy	Acceptance and Commitment Therapy	Participants will receive both the ACT intervention and medication management that is given as usual treatment.
Treatment as Usual	Treatment as Usual	Treatment as usual will include ongoing provision of usual treatment options for pain management.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The Degree of Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: [Impact]	From baseline to 12 weeks post intervention	Use the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey to assess emotional wellbeing. Min=0 Max=100 Higher scores indicate better emotional wellbeing.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The Degree to Which Patients Enjoy Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Method for Treating Chronic Pain Post Active Cancer Treatment: [Acceptability]	From baseline to end of intervention (weeks 1- 8)	Acceptability of the intervention will be assessed through weekly ratings using a 5-point Likert scale for each session with intervention group members. The mean score is reported. Min = 1, Max = 5. Higher scores are better (i.e., indicate greater acceptability of the intervention).
The Ability of Methodological Strategies Used to Monitor and Enhance the Reliability and Validity of ACT: [Fidelity]	From baseline to end of intervention (weeks 1- 8)	Fidelity of the treatment will be assessed through the use of a standardized checklist of core intervention components. It is measured as the mean percent of content checklist items presented to groups each week.
Number of Participants Who Want to Use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Method for Treating Chronic Pain Post Active Cancer Treatment Active Cancer Treatment	From baseline to end of intervention (weeks 1- 8)	Feasibility of the intervention will be assessed through the collection of participant enrollment and adherence data throughout the intervention period and follow-up. We report the count of participants at each therapy session. Therapy sessions were held from baseline through week 8.