Pain and mental health are two things that people regularly seek medical treatment for. A new study has highlighted that not only doctors and drugs, but an online symptom self-management, including telecare if need be, might be as beneficial as seeking treatment.
"Pain, anxiety and depression can produce a vicious cycle in which the presence of one symptom, if untreated, may negatively affect the response to treatment of the other two symptoms," said Dr Kurt Kroenke, the study author.
"So treating not just pain but also mood symptoms simultaneously is quite important as is doing it how, when and where the patient is most receptive," Kroenke added.
The findings published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that online symptom self-management works even better when coupled with clinician telecare.
The researchers in the following study have shown that the intermediate (and less costly) mechanism of online pain and mood self-management is even more effective when coupled with live phone follow-up with a nurse.
"Our results strongly suggest that web-based self-management might be enough for some patients while others may require a combination of online self-management and phone consultations with a nurse manager in order to experience symptom reduction," said Dr Kroenke.
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To test whether pain, anxiety and depression symptoms could be simultaneously addressed by patients in their homes or other location of their choice, researchers conducted the CAMMPS (short for Comprehensive vs. Assisted Management of Mood and Pain Symptoms) trial.
The study incorporated a total of 294 individuals with arm, leg, back, neck or widespread pain which persisted (for 10 or more years in more than half of CAMMPS participants) despite medication. These participants, who also had some moderately severe depression and anxiety, were divided into two groups.
One group received a web-based self-management programme comprised of nine modules (coping with pain; pain medications; communicating with providers; depression; anxiety; sleep; anger management; cognitive strategies; and problem-solving).
The other group, along with CAMMP was given telecare by a nurse who made scheduled telephone calls as well as contacts prompted by patient responses to the online self-management program or e-mail requests.
CAMMPS participants found it helpful and were satisfied with higher satisfaction in the group that received both online self-management and telecare.
While those in the online self-management group indicated they wanted more human contact, participants in the group that received telecare from a nurse were divided with some wanting more contact, others desiring less contact.