Physical Therapy Integrated With Mindfulness for Patients With Chronic Pain and Opioid Treatment

Chronic musculoskeletal pain is a leading cause of years lived with disability world-wide and the costliest health condition in the United States. An estimated 20%-30% of persons with chronic musculoskeletal pain use opioids for pain management. In recent years, the prevalence of long-term opioid treatment (LTOT) has increased in patients with musculoskeletal pain. Physical therapy (PT) is a common nonpharmacologic treatment recommended for chronic musculoskeletal pain. Studies suggest PT for musculoskeletal pain may reduce the likelihood of initiating opioid therapy and may protect against LTOT, but the role of PT as part of a multi-modal strategy to manage patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain and LTOT has not been investigated. Combining exercise-based interventions with mindfulness practices is effective for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain, and engaging in mindfulness practices leads to a reduction in opioid dose in patients with chronic pain and LTOT. This is a feasibility study that will assess effectiveness of physical therapists in managing patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain and LTOT using mindfulness practices. the results of an aim may result in changes to the procedures of a subsequent aim. This study is organized into three Aims that will be conducted consecutively. Aim #1: is to refine and manualize physical therapist-led mindfulness-based interventions integrated with evidence-based PT (I-EPT) for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain and LTOT. Our approach will use semi-structured interviews of 15 patients and 15 physical therapists to refine I-EPT. Aim #2: Evaluate different intensities of a physical therapist training programs for the refined I-EPT treatment protocol. Our approach will be to randomize 45 physical therapists to 1 of 3 training arms (no training; low-intensity training; high-intensity training). Aim #3: Evaluate the feasibility of the I-EPT intervention across domains of the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework. We anticipate 90 patient participants will be enrolled onto the schedules of the randomized physical therapists in Aim 2. Semi-structured qualitative interviews will be conducted. For these interviews there will be separate cohorts of 27 participants from Utah and 27 from Florida. Each cohort will contain approximately 8 physical therapists (4 each from the HIghIT and LowIT programs), 13 patients and 7 between support staff, and clinic managers.