Friday, May 9, 2025
5/9/2025
Integrating pain-CBT into an mHealth analgesic support intervention for patients withchronic pain from advanced cancers - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Pain affects approximately two thirds of patients with advanced incurable cancers. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for pain (pain-CBT) is an effective treatment for chronic pain from cancer. Unfortunately, pain-CBT in its traditional format (60-minute, in-person sessions) is often unrealistic for patients with advanced cancer. Behavioral treatments require substantial adaptation to meet advanced cancer patients’ real-life needs, and should ideally integrate with their pharmacotherapy (e.g. opioid) plans. Mobile health (mHealth) technology is a promising strategy to deliver and ultimately disseminate brief pain-CBT interventions to cancer patients. The goal of Dr. Azizoddin’s K08 proposal is to develop a novel mHealth application that integrates brief pain- CBT into an existing mHealth application designed to optimize opioid management for patients with chronic pain from advanced incurable cancers. Leveraging co-mentor’s app (R21-funded), Smartphone Technology to Alleviate Malignant Pain (STAMP) is a patient-facing smartphone app that facilitates daily symptom and opioid monitoring and delivers tailored pain education and advice. Following the NIH Stage Model for Behavioral Intervention Development (Stage:1A&1B), Dr. Azizoddin will create STAMP+CBT, a novel intervention that harmonizes psychological and medical support for advanced cancer pain. In AIM 1: the PI will develop and refine STAMP+CBT by adapting pain-CBT for brief mHealth delivery through a series of iterative qualitative interviews, and wireframe and user acceptability testing (AIM 1A). STAMP+CBT will be programmed and tested in a small pre-pilot with the target population to inform app refinements (AIM 1B). In AIM 2: 60 patients with chronic pain related to advanced cancer will be randomized to the app or usual care + digital cancer pain education for 6 weeks. Feasibility of the study will be determined by examining recruitment/retention rates and completion rates of app-delivered pain-CBT content. A subset of patients will complete qualitative debriefing interviews to inform final app refinements. Measures will explore anticipated primary (pain interference) and secondary pain outcomes to inform the design of a future (R01) efficacy trial of STAMP+CBT. Dr. Azizoddin’s research activities will be mentored by an interdisciplinary team of expert investigators in pain psychology (Robert Edwards, PhD), palliative care clinical trials (Andrea Enzinger, MD & James Tulsky, MD), cancer pain (Christine Miaskowski, PhD), and mobile health (Michael Businelle, PhD & Daniel Gundersen, PhD). This K08 proposal will allow Dr. Azizoddin to acquire training in: 1) adapting psychological pain interventions for cancer populations, 2) learning rigorous methods to develop/refine behavioral mHealth interventions, 3) conducting randomized clinical trials of behavioral interventions, and 4) conducting longitudinal analysis of momentary pain/psychological mHealth data. This training program and structured mentorship under the guidance of esteemed research faculty will provide Dr. Azizoddin with the support necessary to become a successful, independent investigator, specializing in effective and scalable behavioral treatments to improve cancer pain.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).