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Category: Project

Description: Recent data on treatment of chronic pain indicates that acceptance of pain is an important treatment target, highly correlated with outcomes in pain-anxiety, depression and disability. This study is a randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of a brief psychotherapy intervention, based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), compared to a passive and an active control group (N=90). The treatment begun and ended with an individual session and had two group sessions in between. Outcome data at 3-month follow-up (N=56) showed no significant differences between the groups with regard to acceptance of pain, subjective well-being and health care utilization. Attrition caused impaired statistical power, but effect sizes indicate positive treatment effects. Regression analysis shows that acceptance of pain is able to predict subjective well-being, supporting earlier findings.