Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a major health problem, affecting approximately 1 in 400 African American newborns. Although newborn screening and improvements in medical care have resulted in more favorable long-term prognosis, most patients still encounter frequent unpredictable episodes of pain over their lifespan. Although some patients cope well with pain, others suffer significant vocational and psychosocial dysfunction and become overly dependent upon health care services. Over the past three years, we have found that experimental pain methods are useful in analyzing clinical phenomenon in SCD pain. Our research has recently found that adults with SCD who report frequent negative thoughts are likely to report higher pain even when stimulus intensity is controlled and even to relative low levels of sensory stimulation. Adults who report few negative thoughts may be more stoic and not as apt to report pain. Furthermore, results from our intervention study indicate that brief training in cognitive coping rehearsal techniques may alter pain perception in adults with SCD and lead to short-term reductions in SCD ,pain severity and health care use. Follow-up data, however indicate that most patients do not maintain the improvements after the intervention is completed. Thus, the next step in our research program is to evaluate methods for enhancing the effects of our intervention and promoting its long-term benefit for patients. The purpose of this proposal is to evaluate the effect of a more comprehensive cognitive-behavioral training (CBT) protocol that incorporates training in behavioral as well as cognitive coping skills, a patient model to demonstrate cognitive- behavioral skills and systematic training in maintenance enhancement methods. In this study, 90 adults with SCD will be randomly assigned to either a cognitive coping rehearsal condition similar to our previous intervention, the comprehensive CBT protocol, or a patient-support control condition. Post-treatment evaluation will examine changes in experimental pain sensitivity, clinical SCD pain, health care use, work and social activity and depression and anxiety. To evaluate longer-term maintenance of improvements, 6-month and 1-year follow-up data will be collected. Multivariate analyses will be used to compare the three conditions. We expect that the patients in the comprehensive CBT protocol will have the greatest improvements in pain sensitivity and clinical status. Ultimately, we expect that this research will help us determine whether we can intervene and promote long-term, clinically significant reductions in health care use and improvements in the quality of life for patients with SCD.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HL046953-07
Application #
2415577
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-HUD-2 (02))
Project Start
1992-05-01
Project End
2000-04-30
Budget Start
1997-05-01
Budget End
2000-04-30
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
1997
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
078861598
City
Chapel Hill
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27599
Gil, K M; Anthony, K K; Carson, J W et al. (2001) Daily coping practice predicts treatment effects in children with sickle cell disease. J Pediatr Psychol 26:163-73
Grant, M M; Gil, K M; Floyd, M Y et al. (2000) Depression and functioning in relation to health care use in sickle cell disease. Ann Behav Med 22:149-57
Gil, K M; Carson, J W; Sedway, J A et al. (2000) Follow-up of coping skills training in adults with sickle cell disease: analysis of daily pain and coping practice diaries. Health Psychol 19:85-90
Wison Schaeffer, J J; Gil, K M; Burchinal, M et al. (1999) Depression, disease severity, and sickle cell disease. J Behav Med 22:115-26
Gil, K M; Edens, J L; Wilson, J J et al. (1997) Coping strategies and laboratory pain in children with sickle cell disease. Ann Behav Med 19:22-9
Gil, K M; Wilson, J J; Edens, J L (1997) The stability of pain coping strategies in young children adolescents, and adults with sickle cell disease over an 18-month period. Clin J Pain 13:110-5
Gil, K M; Wilson, J J; Edens, J L et al. (1996) Effects of cognitive coping skills training on coping strategies and experimental pain sensitivity in African American adults with sickle cell disease. Health Psychol 15:3-10
Gil, K M; Phillips, G; Edens, J et al. (1994) Observation of pain behaviors during episodes of sickle cell disease pain. Clin J Pain 10:128-32