Understanding persistent pain version 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cognitive biases and intolerance of uncertainty in persistent pain
IRAS ID
164886
Contact name
Lucy Robinson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
Subjective pain reports and objective pain measures tend to be poorly related to one another. This suggests that psychological factors are important in the development and maintenance of persistent pain. But, the psychological processes involved in persistent pain remain at present poorly understood. This study aims to investigate psychological factors which are thought to be involved in persistent pain, such as, attention to the body, decision making inaccuracies and difficulties with uncertainty (Intolerance of Uncertainty; IU). This study will investigate whether individuals with persistent pain have greater IU, attention to the body and decision making inaccuracies, than healthy age and gender matched controls, even when taking into account other psychological factors, such as, anxiety and depression. Finding out the exact processes involved in persistent pain could help improve treatment interventions.
The study will use innovative computer based tasks and established
questionnaires to investigate cognitive predictors of persistent pain.
The study will recruit 60 participants in total; 30 participants will have persistent pain and 30 participants will not have persistent pain and will be age and gender matched controls. Participants will be aged 18-65 years with no major sensory impairments.Participants will be asked to complete one research appointment lasting approximately 1.5 hours, which will include questionnaires and two computer-based tasks. The study will be fully completed by 2016.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NE/0050
Date of REC Opinion
25 Feb 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion