A BRIEF, TRANSDIAGNOSTIC COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL TREATMENT FOR UROLOGIC CHRONIC PELVIC PAIN SYNDROME (UCPPS): PROCESS, PREDICTIONS, OUTCOMES

NIH RePORTER · NIH · R01 · $676,506 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Abstract/Project Summary Urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome (UCPPS) encompasses several common, costly diagnoses including interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome and chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome that are poorly understood and inadequately treated. Their prolonged personal and economic costs are amplified by the frequent co-occurrence of a cluster of centralized pain conditions (particularly irritable bowel syndrome 3 [IBS]) but also fibromyalgia [FMS], chronic headache, chronic fatigue, etc.) called Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions (COPC). Clinically, the notion that these syndromes share a centralized pain phenotype with a fundamental disturbance in pain or sensory processing dovetails with our preliminary research showing that a novel transdiagnostic behavioral treatment emphasizing a single common mechanistic pathway (i.e. inflexible cognitive style) reduces severity of both targeted (IBS) and untargeted multisymptom COPCs that include (but is not limited to) to UCPPS, FMS, chronic fatigue, and chronic headache. If effective in a larger scale study, a transdiagnostic UCPPS treatment would offer a more efficient, accessible, and broadly useful strategy for improving chronic pelvic pain and its most frequent and complicating comorbidities. To this end, we will randomize 240 UCPPS subjects (18-70 yrs.) of any gender and race to a 4-session version of CBT that teaches skills for self-managing UCPPS symptoms (e.g. pelvic pain, urinary symptoms) with minimal clinician oversight (MC-CBT) or a four- session non-specific education/support control (EDU). Efficacy assessments will be administered at pre- treatment and two weeks after the end of the 10-week acute phase. We hypothesize MC-CBT will deliver significantly greater UCPPS symptom improvement than EDU (Aim 1). Additional aims include characterizing the durability of effects 3- and 6 months post treatment (Aim 2). To increase the efficacy and efficiency of behavioral pain treatments, we draw upon Beck’s transdiagnostic cognitive model13 to characterize the precise cognitive procedures and corresponding operative processes (e.g., cognitive distancing14, context sensitivity, coping flexibility, repetitive negative thought) that drive MC-CBT induced UCPPS symptom relief relative to EDU (Aim 3) as well as baseline patient variables that moderate differential response (Aim 3) with the ultimate goal of more proactive patient-treatment matching fundamental to the goals of personalized medicine. By applying innovative statistical modelling (e.g. dominance analysis, Randomized Explanatory Trial analyses) to study aims in the context of a rigorously designed behavioral trial, we expand the portfolio of nondrug pain treatments for UCPPS and co-aggregating COPCs to include one whose brevity, convenience, and transdiagnostic design “meets patients where they are”20 and addresses the practical (access, complexity, cost), clinical (breadth, durability, magnitude of effects, patient...

Key facts

NIH application ID
10491127
Project number
5R01DK128927-02
Recipient
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO
Principal Investigator
JEFFREY M LACKNER
Activity code
R01
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2022
Award amount
$676,506
Award type
5
Project period
2021-09-21 → 2026-07-31