Development and pilot testing of a web-based symptom management program for multiple sclerosis: My MS toolkit

We describe the process of working with stakeholders with multiple sclerosis (MS) to develop a web-based multisymptom self-management program to address chronic pain, fatigue, and/or depressive symptoms. The results of a pilot trial to test the feasibility and effects of the program are presented. The first study phase involved the development of a web-based symptom self-management program. The second phase involved a single-arm pilot trial (N = 20) of unguided website use for 12 weeks in adults with MS and elevated levels of chronic pain, fatigue, and/or depressed mood. A web-based symptom self-management program, My MS Toolkit, was developed and released for public use in 2019. The results from the pilot trial showed that on average, participants accessed the website 5.4 times, spending about 7 min on the site per visit. Eighty percent rated intervention-related changes in activity limitations, symptoms, emotions, and overall quality of life as either "somewhat" or "moderately" better. Although there were no significant improvements on outcome measures, of those who screened positive for the outcome of interest (i.e., showed a clinically elevated level of that symptom), clinically significant improvement was seen in 37.5% for fatigue, 45.5% for pain, and 40% for depressive symptoms. My MS Toolkit is an accessible, stakeholder-informed, web-based MS symptom self-management program that demonstrated a clinically significant positive impact on symptoms in a proportion of participants. More research is needed to further examine the effects of this program and elucidate who is most likely to benefit from this type of self-guided intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).