OBJECTIVES: Misuse of opioids, often first prescribed for chronic pain conditions, has created a public health crisis in the United States. In part, this crisis has been amplified by a belief that doctors should be able to remove all pain – as opposed to helping patients learn to optimize their functioning given their condition. The current research evaluates a digital tool for helping people managing chronic pain to increase life functioning and decrease use of medication.

METHODS: A randomized control trial recruited people who had been managing a pain condition for at least 3 months but less than 5 years. Participants also had to be using or considering use of an opioid based medication. Participants in the experimental arm were assigned to use a comprehensive digital behavioral health and pain management tool (myStrength) on their own. Follow up surveys were sent out at 14, 30 and 60 days post registration. Control participants were told they would be given access to the tool after the end of the study, and should continue with their routine care.

RESULTS: The study included 67 subjects in the experimental and 65 in the control condition. 70% of the control and 72% of experimental participants have at least 1 follow up score. Simple difference scores indicated that at the 30-day follow-up experimental subjects report declining need for medication, control participants report increased need for medication (p<.01) Experimental subjects also reported better overall functional coping (p < .05). Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) supports these findings.

CONCLUSIONS: This research presents an early signal that digital tools for teaching non-opioid based pain management strategies appear to help users decrease reliance on medication while increasing functional ability.