Are Processes in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) Related to Chronic Pain Outcomes Within Individuals Over Time?...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Behavioral Science
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) emphasizes experiential avoidance (EA) and values-based living (VBL) as core processes.
• Understanding within-individual processes is crucial, as between-subject findings may not generalize.
• Chronic pain patients face challenges with pain interference and emotional well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the within-individual relationship between EA, VBL, and daily pain interference and emotional well-being in chronic pain.
• To explore concurrent and prospective associations between these variables.

Main Methods:

• Employed n-of-1 designs with three chronic pain participants over 87-110 days.
• Utilized daily 12-item questionnaires and McKnight Time-series analysis.
• Assessed interrelationships of EA, VBL, pain intensity, and chronic pain outcomes concurrently and prospectively.

Main Results:

• Experiential avoidance (EA) and values-based living (VBL) were associated with pain interference and/or emotional well-being in two of three participants.
• These associations were primarily observed on the same day (concurrent), not on consecutive days (prospective).
• Experiential avoidance (EA) did not show associations with emotional well-being for any participant.

Conclusions:

• ACT processes showed concurrent associations with pain outcomes, aligning with theory.
• The lack of prospective associations suggests potential for higher within-day variability in pain interference.
• Future research should utilize higher measurement frequencies to capture time-lagged effects in chronic pain.