The impact of imagery on the daily experience of chronic pain
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The impact of imagery on the daily experience of chronic pain
IRAS ID
188689
Contact name
Iain Finnie
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 3 days
Research summary
The proposed study will investigate the impact of a brief imagery manipulation intervention on chronic pain patients’ anxiety in relation to engaging in everyday activities, and their catastrophic beliefs about pain. Experiencing negative imagery is common in psychological problems such as Social Phobia. Interventions to help patients directly change these images have reduced emotional distress.
Recent research has indicated negative pain related images as common to many chronic pain patients (Phillips, 2011). Experiencing such images has been associated with higher levels of pain unpleasantness (pain feeling emotionally worse) and anxiety (Gosden et al, 2012). Such emotional reactions are linked to greater avoidance of activity which can increase levels of disability. Furthermore, patient’s images often concern personal ‘worst-case’ catastrophes (Phillips, 2011). Helping patients to change these images may improve a patient’s day to day experience of pain by reducing anxiety and changing catastrophic beliefs about pain. This may enable greater participation in activity.
Adult patients with chronic pain who experience images in relation to their pain will be drawn from Clinical Psychology assessment clinics as part of the NHS Fife Integrated Pain Management Service. They will complete an assessment session to take initial measures of fear of activity, catastrophic beliefs, anxiety, and depression. A target image that emotionally affects the participant will be identified for the intervention. Participants will then complete a daily diary of measures of catastrophic beliefs, engagement in activity and unpleasantness of pain, to form a baseline.
An imagery manipulation technique will be taught where the image is held in mind and gradually changed in a meaningful way to the participant. This will be practiced once a day during a seven day intervention period with same daily diary completed to highlight any changes. A review session will be held to re-collect questionnaire data and de-brief the participant.
REC name
South East Scotland REC 01
REC reference
16/SS/0093
Date of REC Opinion
1 Jun 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion