Internet-Delivered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain : Feasibility, patients’ experiences and implementation process

Sammanfattning: Chronic pain represents a major burden for individuals and society. Internet-delivered psychological interventions are evidence-based treatments that enable patients to access qualified care at a time and place convenient for them. Internet-delivered Acceptance and commitment therapy (IACT) has shown promising treatment effects for chronic pain patients on pain-related outcomes such as disability, pain intensity, and interference, and on psychological outcomes such as catastrophizing, fear-avoidance and acceptance. Interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation programs (IPRP) are multimodal interventions given by synchronized teams of health care professionals from different disciplines. With moderate treatment effects on many outcomes, IPRP is the best evidence treatment for chronic pain to date.   IACT may add to IPRP’s effectiveness by providing individual psychological treatment via the internet. However, IACT has not yet been implemented in routine care in a larger scale. In this thesis, the aim was to study if IACT may be acceptable for chronic pain patients and if it is feasible and effective as an addition to IPRP. Three methodological approaches were used: qualitative analysis, implementation science and a controlled trial of effectiveness in a clinical context.   Study I showed that an internet-delivered aftercare intervention enabled chronic pain patients to change their perception of their body and pain and their attitude about their future and self. Furthermore, self-motivating goals and acceptance strategies appeared to influence autonomy. The results gave promise to the feasibility of IACT as aftercare following IPRP. Study II showed that chronic pain patients’ experiences of IACT vary, with respect to being in treatment and the consequences of treatment. Specifically, e-therapist feedback and deadlines for homework may have an impact on autonomy and change. Patients’ expectations, motivations, and restraints could explain treatment engagement and experiences. In Study III, IACT added during IPRP enhanced the treatment effects on pain acceptance and affective distress. Furthermore, IACT added as aftercare strengthened the long-term effect of IPRP on psychological flexibility and self-efficacy. However, unsatisfactory completion rates complicated the interpretation of the findings. Study IV showed that implementing IACT in an IPRP setting may be facilitated by contextual alinement and modifications based on patients’ needs. Thorough testing of the application and matching the intervention’s aim with the host’s needs are important not to challenge the process. An implementation framework may ease planning and evaluation of implementation processes.   In conclusion, IACT could be feasible as an addition to IPRP. IACT can help chronic pain patients self-manage their pain and improve pain acceptance and self-efficacy. However, chronic pain patients’ varying experiences may need to be considered to improve treatment engagement and help patients benefit from treatment. In addition, implementation of IACT in IPRP settings is likely to depend on both flexibility to changing host needs and continuity of known pivotal components in IACT.