The Effectiveness of Exercise Combined With Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain
CompletedNot applicableNCT03050528
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This study has no listed site in Canada in this snapshot. It is included as part of the worldwide chronic pain corpus.
Brief summary (from the registry)
The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a combined Exercise and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) programme, compared to a standalone supervised exercise intervention for patients with chronic pain. Chronic pain is a common problem, which can have a significant impact on quality of life. While there are many treatments available for chronic pain, research has shown that improvements are often modest and short-term. Exercise therapy is known to be helpful for many chronic conditions and is recommended in clinical guidelines for the management of chronic pain. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of psychological therapy, which focuses on improvement of function, rather than symptom reduction. There is an emphasis on psychological flexibility, values and mindfulness. This approach may be well suited to chronic pain, where symptoms can be beyond a person's control, but there is a need for further research, particularly with regards to combining ACT with a physical intervention. This study will take place in a Dublin University hospital. Patients will be randomly allocated to a combined exercise and ACT treatment group or a standalone exercise group. Both groups will have weekly treatment for eight weeks and will be assessed before and after treatment, and again twelve weeks later. Questionnaires will be used to measure the effects of the treatment on the degree to which pain interferes with various aspects of daily life. Activity trackers will be worn to measure daily physical activity levels. A purposeful sample of participants from both groups will also be invited to participate in a qualitative study following treatment.
Study details
- Official title
- The ExACT Trial: The Effectiveness of Exercise Combined With Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Compared to a Standalone Supervised Exercise Intervention for Chronic Pain. A Randomised Controlled Trial
- Conditions
- Interventions
- Behavioral: Supervised Exercise
- Behavioral: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- Sponsor
- University College Dublin
- Collaborators
- Mater Misericordiae University Hospital; Health Research Board, Ireland; King's College London
- Start date
- 2017-02-06
- Primary completion
- 2018-12-30
- Sex
- All
- Age range
- from 18 Years
- Results posted
- No results posted in this snapshot
- Countries
- Ireland
- Total sites listed
- 1
Eligibility criteria
Show eligibility criteria (verbatim from the registry)
Inclusion Criteria: * Adults aged 18 years and over who have been diagnosed with chronic pain by a medical doctor * Presence of persistent pain of greater than 12 weeks * Ability to provide informed consent * Ability to communicate adequately in spoken and written english * Score of ≥ 3 on pain interference subscale of the Brief Pain Inventory Exclusion Criteria: * Need for further diagnostic evaluation * Presence of major medical or psychiatric disorder which would impede ability to participate with treatment * Presence of active cancer or cancer related pain * Unstable inflammatory condition e.g. rheumatoid arthritis or gout * Surgical or pain interventional procedure (e.g. spinal cord stimulator, rhizotomy, intra-articular or epidural injection) during the last 3 months. * Concurrent participation, or participation in the previous 3 months with any form of psychological therapy, physiotherapy or supervised exercise intervention * Previous participation in any form of multidisciplinary pain management programme * Presence of substance misuse * Presence of any contraindication to participation in a gym or pool based exercise programme such as shortness of breath at rest, unstable diabetes or epilepsy, recent myocardial infarction, stroke, pulmonary embolism, asthma attack * Weight \> 125 kg or waist circumference \> 50 inches (restriction die to pool evacuation equipment)
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (US National Library of Medicine), snapshot October 2026. Check the registry for current recruiting status. Record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03050528