# Individualized Assessment and Treatment Program for TMD: Coping as a Mechanism

> **NIH NIH U01** · UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCH OF MED/DNT · 2022 · $307,539

## Abstract

This is a proposal for an administrative supplement to the parent study, “Individualized Assessment and
Treatment Program for TMD: Coping as a Mechanism” (U01 DE028520). The parent study is currently
engaged in exploring the extent to which the training of coping skills per se is an important mechanism of
psychosocial treatment. The current supplement seeks to lay the groundwork for expanding the range of
treatment mechanisms examined to include therapeutic relationship factors (therapist support, empathy,
acknowledgment). This supplement is in response to Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) NOT-DE-22-002.
 Psychosocial treatments have been effective for temporomandibular disorders (TMD), but the mechanisms
of action for these treatments are unclear. Most studies of psychosocial treatment, including the parent U01,
have focused on relatively specific psychosocial mechanisms, including coping skills acquisition, pain
management self-efficacy, decrease in catastrophizing, increased mindfulness, acceptance, and readiness to
change behavior to ameliorate pain. The 2 therapist-delivered treatments in the parent study are packaged
CBT or Individualized Assessment and Treatment (IATP). Left untested in this study are common therapeutic
factors that often emerge as influential in pain outcome research. These common, non-specific therapeutic
factors include (especially): the therapeutic alliance; interpretation and understanding; emotional expression;
reinforcement; information; and reassurance and support. Because both conditions of the parent U01 involve
similar levels of therapist involvement, therapist support and other treatment-non-specific variables cannot be
tested clearly. One way to assess these factors is to introduce a pain treatment that explicitly does not contain
these factors; i.e., a treatment that does not employ therapists or require supervision by health care
professionals. There are currently no studies published in which therapist-led treatments have been compared
to a mobile application-based treatment.
 We therefore propose to pilot test a mobile application treatment condition (painTrainer©) added as an
additional treatment condition to the parent study, and provided to 20 patients in the coming year. This
condition will deliver the content of the CBT condition of the parent study, but will do so with no therapist
contact. If this mobile application is found credible and acceptable it may be used in additional comparisons
with treatments conducted by therapists. Thus at some point we will be able to parse the effects of cognitive-
behavioral treatment content per se and therapist support factors. An additional benefit of testing such a mobile
application is that it might in the future provide a means to expand the reach of pain management
professionals to remote and underserved populations.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10594843
- **Project number:** 3U01DE028520-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCH OF MED/DNT
- **Principal Investigator:** MARK D. LITT
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $307,539
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2023-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10594843

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10594843, Individualized Assessment and Treatment Program for TMD: Coping as a Mechanism (3U01DE028520-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10594843. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*