Herbert, M. S., Malaktaris, A. L., Dochat, C., Thomas, M. L., Wetherell, J. L., & Afari, N. (2019). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain: Does Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Influence Treatment Outcomes? Pain Medicine, 20(9), 1728–1736. https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pny272
Objective
The aim of this study was to determine whether post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) moderates treatment outcomes in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for chronic pain.
Design
Longitudinal.
Setting
Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.
Subjects
A total of 126 veterans with chronic pain participating in an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy intervention for chronic pain. A structured clinical interview was used at baseline to designate PTSD-positive (N = 43) and -negative groups (N = 83).
Methods
Linear mixed-effects models to determine whether PTSD moderated change in pain interference, pain severity, pain acceptance, depressive symptoms, or pain-related anxiety at post-treatment and six-month follow-up.
Results
Participants with co-occurring PTSD reported greater pain interference, pain severity, depressive symptoms, and pain-related anxiety at baseline. PTSD status did not moderate treatment effects post-treatment. Rather, there were significant improvements on all study measures across groups (P < 0.001). PTSD status moderated change in depressive symptoms at six-month follow-up (P < 0.05). Specifically, participants with chronic pain alone demonstrated improvement in depressive symptoms compared with pretreatment levels, whereas participants with PTSD regressed to pretreatment levels.
Conclusions
PTSD status did not significantly affect treatment outcomes, with the exception of depressive symptoms at six-month follow-up. Overall, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for chronic pain appears helpful for improving outcomes among veterans with co-occurring PTSD; however, veterans with co-occurring PTSD may experience fewer long-term gains compared with those with chronic pain alone.