# Evaluation of the efficacy and mechanisms of a novel intervention for chronic pain tailored to people living with HIV

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2020 · $610,311

## Abstract

Project Summary: Behavioral interventions for chronic pain among people living with HIV (PLWH) are an
understudied area, with great potential to improve pain and function. Chronic pain is an important comorbidity
that affects between 30% and 85% of PLWH and is associated with greater odds of functional impairment,
increased emergency room utilization, suboptimal retention in HIV care, and failure to achieve virologic
suppression. What is not known is how to optimally address chronic pain in this population. Opioids are a
commonly used treatment for chronic pain, particularly in PLWH. Opioid prescribing for chronic pain often does
not result in substantial improvement in outcomes and contributes to the growing epidemic of opioid addiction
and overdose. In contrast, behavioral interventions are among the most effective and safest treatments for
chronic pain in the general population. Pain Self-Management (PSM) is a Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)-based
behavioral approach that involves pain-related skill acquisition and goal setting. PSM interventions have been
promoted by the 2016 Department of Health and Human Services National Pain Strategy (DHHS NPS) as an
effective, scalable approach to chronic pain management. Especially given the current opioid crisis, the DHHS
NPS underscored the urgent need to develop and test PSM interventions tailored to the unique needs of
vulnerable populations, particularly PLWH, that can be implemented and disseminated nationwide. Until an
effective and scalable PSM intervention for chronic pain in PLWH is developed, reducing the burden of chronic
pain safely and effectively in this population will not be possible. The overall objective of this proposal is to
evaluate a novel theory-based PSM intervention, “Skills TO Manage Pain” (STOMP), developed for and tailored
to PLWH. We will accomplish our overall objective with the following primary specific aim: 1) Evaluate the
efficacy of STOMP, a theory-based intervention tailored to improving chronic pain in PLWH. Given our rigorous
intervention development process and promising pilot trial results, our working hypothesis is that STOMP will
decrease pain and improve function in PLWH. We also propose the following secondary aims: 2) Conduct
exploratory analyses of the impact of STOMP on HIV outcomes associated with chronic pain (i.e. retention in
care, virologic suppression), and 3) Investigate proximal outcomes as potential mediators of STOMP's impact
on chronic pain. This approach is innovative because it incorporates novel peer co-led group sessions that were
created based on our formative intervention development work, includes patients with comorbidities (e.g.,
depressive symptoms, addiction history) common among PLWH but typically excluded from chronic pain studies,
and investigates the impact of a chronic pain intervention on disease-specific HIV outcomes in addition to pain
and function. The proposed research will be significant because if successful, it will pave th...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9922384
- **Project number:** 5R01MH115754-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Jessica S Merlin
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $610,311
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-18 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9922384

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9922384, Evaluation of the efficacy and mechanisms of a novel intervention for chronic pain tailored to people living with HIV (5R01MH115754-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9922384. Licensed CC0.

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