Does a Brief Mindfulness Exercise Improve Outcomes in Upper Extremity Patients? A Randomized Controlled Trial

摘要

BackgroundMindfulness-based interventions are useful in reducing psychologic distress and pain intensity in patients with chronic pain. However, most mindfulness-based interventions are resource-intensive, lengthy, and not feasible for busy orthopaedic surgical practices.Questions/purposesThe purpose of this study was to determine if a 60-second personalized mindfulness-based video exercise is (1) associated with improved pain intensity, emotional distress, and state anxiety compared with an attention placebo control (a time-matched educational pamphlet about pain and stress); and (2) feasible and acceptable for patients with upper extremity injury in an orthopaedic practice.MethodsThis was a single-center, single-blind randomized controlled trial of the mindfulness-based video exercise (60 seconds duration, free online) versus an attention placebo control (an educational pamphlet about pain and stress presented to patients to read over 60 seconds). One hundred forty-nine patients presenting for a new or followup appointment at the office of one of two orthopaedic hand and upper extremity outpatient surgical practices at an urban academic hospital were invited to participate between September 2016 and December 2016. Of 149 patients screened, 125 patients were randomized and completed a demographic questionnaire, the Numeric Rating Scale to assess pain intensity, the State Anxiety subscale of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory to assess state anxiety, and Emotion Thermometers to assess anxiety, anger, and depression before and after the interventions. Postintervention, patients also completed the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire Scale-3 to assess the acceptability. A mean score of 21 or higher is considered acceptable. Feasibility was determined based on number of patients approached who refused participation. The intervention was defined as feasible if refusal rate was lower than 25%. Analysis of covariance was used to test comparative improved pain intensity on the NRS, psychologic distress on the Emotion Thermometers, and state anxiety on the State Anxiety Subscale of the State Trait Anxiety Index after controlling for respective baseline scores. A 1-point minimal clinically important difference (MCID) was used on the NRS for pain intensity.ResultsAdjusted for the baseline means, compared with patients who received the attention placebo control, patients who participated in the mindfulness-based video exercise demonstrated improved pain intensity (mindfulness-based video exercise: 3.03 0.12; control: 3.49 0.12; mean difference: 0.46 [0.12-0.80]; p = 0.008); state anxiety (mindfulness-based video exercise: 32.35 +/- 0.59; control: 35.29 +/- 0.59; mean difference: 2.94 [1.29-4.59]; p = 0.001); anxiety symptoms (mindfulness-based video exercise: 1.49 +/- 0.19; control: 2.10 +/- 0.19; mean difference: 0.61 [0.08-1.14]; p = 0.024); depression (mindfulness-based video exercise: 1.03 +/- 0.10; control: 1.47 +/- 0.11; mean difference: 0.44 [0.15-0.73]; p = 0.004); and anger (mindfulness-based video exercise: 0.76 +/- 0.12; control: 1.36 +/- 0.12; mean difference: 0.60 [0.26-0.94]; p = 0.001). However, the observed differences in pain intensity were below 1 point on the NRS, which is the MCID established in patients with chronic pain. No MCID is available for the other measures. The mindfulness-based video exercise was feasible based on a dropout rate of 0%, and acceptability reached the medium range with similar scores in both groups (mindfulness-based video exercise: 20.70 +/- 5.48; control: 20.