Investigating Pain in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Living with chronic abdominal pain in IBD: a PhD studentship developing and feasibility testing IBD pain management interventions

  • IRAS ID

    226323

  • Contact name

    Christine Norton

  • Contact email

    christine.norton@kcl.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    King's College London

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 9 months, 0 days

  • Research summary

    Pain is a commonly experienced symptom of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). This can include abdominal pain as a result of inflammatory activity or disease-related complications, and extra intestinal manifestations of IBD such as musculoskeletal pain. Research has demonstrated that a significant number of patients continue to experience pain in periods of remission. Current pain management approaches are largely pharmacological in nature and many are recognised as inappropriate for long-term symptom management and in the context of non-active disease. Consequently, a more holistic understanding of pain in IBD is needed. The two phases of the research aim to:
    Phase 1: investigate clinical and psychological factors associated with pain in a cohort of patients with IBD. A cross-sectional study will recruit both clinical and charity website IBD populations, who will be asked to complete a number of questionnaires on pain, demographic, clinical and psychological factors. This will then lead to the development of a theoretical model of chronic pain in IBD and facilitate the development of an online pain self-management intervention.
    Phase 2: explore patient's experiences of living with pain in an individual interview format. This will include exploring the nature of pain, current pain management strategies used by patients and their needs and preferences for a self-management intervention (including format and content).

  • REC name

    London - Surrey Borders Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    17/LO/1527

  • Date of REC Opinion

    14 Sep 2017

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion