Hypnosis to Manage Pain and Symptoms in Patients With Sickle Cell Disease

NCT ID: NCT00393250

Last Updated: 2021-10-29

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

PHASE3

Total Enrollment

31 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2007-04-30

Study Completion Date

2012-06-04

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

This study will examine whether hypnosis can reduce the frequency and intensity of pain in patients with sickle cell disease.

Patients 18 years of age and older with sickle cell disease and a history of pain associated with their disease may be eligible for this study.

Participants are interviewed to assess their frequency and intensity of pain, sleep quality, coping strategies, mood and anxiety and are then randomly assigned to study Group A or B (see below). All participants are given pain diaries to complete at home and turn in at each clinic visit. They undergo the following procedures:

Group A

Weeks 1-4: Receive weekly 60-minute hypnosis sessions, in which they are given suggestions for relieving pain, reducing anxiety, improving sleep and enhancing their health and well-being. The sessions are audio- and videotaped.

Week 5: Are interviewed to assess pain, sleep, coping strategies, mood and anxiety.

Week 6: Receive a DVD player and DVD with instruction on how to perform self-hypnosis. They practice hypnosis at home as often as needed, but at least once a day. They record in a pain diary in the morning and the evening their amount of pain, medication use, school or work attendance, quality and amount of sleep and number of times they use self-hypnosis.

Weeks 8, 10 and 12: Turn in their pain diaries and have a pain assessment.

Week 12: Are assessed for how they respond to the hypnosis.

Group B

Weeks 1-4: Receive weekly 60-minute sessions of education about sickle cell disease.

Week 5: Are interviewed to assess pain, sleep, coping strategies, mood and anxiety.

Week 6: Turn in their daily pain diaries and receive a DVD player and DVD that contains educational materials about sickle cell disease.

Weeks 8, 10 and 12: Turn in their pain diaries and have a pain assessment.

Weeks 13-24: Follow the procedures described in weeks 1-12 for Group A.

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common genetic disease in African-Americans, characterized by recurrent painful vaso-occlusive crises. Standard medical therapies for controlling or preventing crises are limited because of efficacy and/or toxicity. Published studies focus on the frequency of acute pain crises resulting in emergency department use and a number of hospitalizations. However, few studies focus on pain manifestations outside the typical healthcare delivery system. Furthermore, the proportion of patients who are able to self-manage their crises at home without accessing healthcare professionals is unknown. Adjunctive approaches using psychosocial interventions may be effective in further reducing and/or preventing painful crises, as well as in improving quality of life and reducing health care utilization. Recent evidence suggests that learning a cognitive-behavioral intervention centered on self-hypnosis for pain management may be helpful in modulating pain frequency, improving sleep quality, and decreasing use of narcotic pain medications in patients with SCD.

This protocol describes a randomized, controlled, single-crossover, single-blinded pilot study trial of hypnosis for managing pain in SCD patients. Subjects receive hypnosis (experimental intervention) during 4 weeks of face-to-face encounters with a physician trained in hypnosis. For 6 weeks following the instruction period, the participants will perform daily self-hypnosis using customizable digital media. Subjects in the control arm of the study will receive face-to-face education regarding sickle cell disease for the same length and frequency as the treatment group hypnosis encounters before crossing over to the experimental intervention arm of the study. Primary outcome measures include patient assessments of pain frequency, intensity, and quality. Secondary outcome measures include face-to face assessments of psychosocial variables including anxiety, coping strategies, sleep, depression and health-care utilization.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Sickle Cell Disease Pain Management

Keywords

Explore important study keywords that can help with search, categorization, and topic discovery.

Pain Management Sickle Cell Sickle Cell Disease Pain Hypnosis

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

CROSSOVER

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

1

Hypnosis

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Hypnosis

Intervention Type OTHER

Subjects receive hypnosis (experimental intervention) during 4 weeks of face-to-face encounters with a physician trained in hypnosis. For 6 weeks following the instruction period, the participants will perform daily self- hypnosis using customizable digital media.

2

Control

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Control

Intervention Type OTHER

Subjects in the control arm of the study will receive face-to-face education regarding sickle cell disease for the same length and frequency as the treatment group hypnosis encounters before crossing over to the experimental intervention arm of the study

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

Hypnosis

Subjects receive hypnosis (experimental intervention) during 4 weeks of face-to-face encounters with a physician trained in hypnosis. For 6 weeks following the instruction period, the participants will perform daily self- hypnosis using customizable digital media.

Intervention Type OTHER

Control

Subjects in the control arm of the study will receive face-to-face education regarding sickle cell disease for the same length and frequency as the treatment group hypnosis encounters before crossing over to the experimental intervention arm of the study

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

Greater than or equal to 18 years of age.

Diagnosis of Hemoglobin SS sickle cell disease.

Patient identifies history of pain as a significant problem during at least 2 days in the month prior to enrollment.

Written informed consent/assent has been obtained.

\<TAB\>

Exclusion Criteria

Less than 18 years of age.

Unwilling to experience hypnosis or to have hetero-hypnosis sessions recorded.

Non-fluency in written and spoken English.

Physical or other disabilities that prevent adequate participation in hypnotic susceptibility testing.

Does not wish to be video and audiotaped.

Psychosis or psychotic depression.

History of seizures or epilepsy.
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

Meet the organizations funding or collaborating on the study and learn about their roles.

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)

NIH

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

Identify the individual or organization who holds primary responsibility for the study information submitted to regulators.

Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Learn about the lead researchers overseeing the trial and their institutional affiliations.

Gwenyth R Wallen, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)

Locations

Explore where the study is taking place and check the recruitment status at each participating site.

Howard University Hospital

Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States

Site Status

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Site Status

Countries

Review the countries where the study has at least one active or historical site.

United States

References

Explore related publications, articles, or registry entries linked to this study.

Anbar RD. Self-hypnosis for the treatment of functional abdominal pain in childhood. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2001 Aug;40(8):447-51. doi: 10.1177/000992280104000804.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 11516052 (View on PubMed)

Anbar RD. Hypnosis in pediatrics: applications at a pediatric pulmonary center. BMC Pediatr. 2002 Dec 3;2:11. doi: 10.1186/1471-2431-2-11. Epub 2002 Dec 3.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 12460456 (View on PubMed)

Ballas SK. Sickle cell anaemia: progress in pathogenesis and treatment. Drugs. 2002;62(8):1143-72. doi: 10.2165/00003495-200262080-00003.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 12010077 (View on PubMed)

Wallen GR, Middleton KR, Ames N, Brooks AT, Handel D. Randomized trial of hypnosis as a pain and symptom management strategy in adults with sickle cell disease. Integr Med Insights. 2014 Nov 3;9:25-33. doi: 10.4137/IMI.S18355. eCollection 2014.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 25520557 (View on PubMed)

Related Links

Access external resources that provide additional context or updates about the study.

Other Identifiers

Review additional registry numbers or institutional identifiers associated with this trial.

07-CC-0011

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: secondary_id

070011

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id