Improving Distress and Behaviors for Parents of Adolescents With Chronic Pain Enrolled in an Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Program.

OBJECTIVES

Intensive interdisciplinary treatment is emerging as an effective treatment of chronic pain in youth. These programs often include a parental component with the belief that targeting parental distress and responses to a child's pain will improve outcomes. However, few studies have evaluated the impact of a parental intervention in the interdisciplinary treatment of pediatric chronic pain. The present study consists of a nonrandomized pre-post design to evaluate change in psychological and behavioral functioning of parents who participated in intensive parent programming that utilized cognitive-behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy, delivered within the context of an interdisciplinary intensive 3-week pain treatment program for youth with chronic pain.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Two hundred twelve parents and their children participated in the study, with 116 participants completing 3-month follow-up measures. Parents completed measures of depressive symptoms, pain catastrophizing, protective responses, and psychological flexibility at admission, discharge, and 3 months after the program. Child functional disability was assessed at the same time points. We examined change in parent factors over time, while controlling for change in child distress.

RESULTS

Parents reported significant improvements in all areas of functioning from admission to discharge and improvements were maintained at 3-month follow-up.

DISCUSSION

This study provides evidence suggesting parent interventions can be effective in reducing parent distress and behaviors known to be associated with child outcomes.