High levels of pain, significant anxiety, and/or depressive symptoms prior to surgery put patients at elevated risk forchronic pain and prolonged opioid use following surgery. The purpose of this preliminary study was to assess the efficacy of a one-day Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) workshop in "at-risk" Veterans for the prevention of chronic pain and opioid use following orthopedic surgery. In a randomized controlled trial, 88 at-risk Veterans undergoing orthopedic surgery were assigned to Treatment as Usual (TAU; N =44) or TAU plus a 1-day ACT workshop (N = 44). Pain levels and opioid use were assessed up to 3 months following surgery. Pain acceptance and values-based behavior were assessed at baseline and 3-month follow-up. Participants who completed the ACT workshop reached pain and opioid cessation sooner than those in TAU. Post-operative complications exhibited a moderating effect on these outcomes such that the effects of ACT were greater in patients without complications. Increases in pain acceptance and values-based behavior, processes targeted in ACT, were related to better outcomes. These promising results merit further investigation in a larger clinical trial. Providing an intervention prior to surgery for at-risk veterans has the potential to change clinical practice from a focus on management of postoperative pain to prevention of chronic pain in at-risk individuals. This study is registered at clinicaltrials.gov no.01364870.
This pilot study compared the effects of a 1-day preventive behavioral intervention (ACT) to treatment-as-usual in at-risk Veterans undergoing orthopedic surgery. Three months following the intervention, Veterans receiving ACT exhibited quicker cessation of pain and opioid use. Focusing on pre-operative pain management may help prevent chronic post-surgical pain.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 14. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 January 2019.
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#3,397,610
of 34,404,538 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Pain
#687
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Outputs of similar age
#51,665
of 372,641 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Pain
#13
of 36 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,404,538 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,233 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 17.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 36 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its contemporaries.
