A study funded by The National Institutes of Health found that an alternative to pain medication called “pain coping skills training” can be used to improve quality of life in patients with dialysis-dependent kidney failure.
The method kept pain from affecting patients’ daily activities. According to an NIH press release, “pain coping skills training is an approach widely used for chronic pain, but it had not previously been tested for people treated with dialysis.”
The study research group is called the Hemodialysis Opioid Prescription Effort (HOPE) consortium. 643 adult patients were enrolled in the trial and divided into two groups. One group received pain coping skills training for their chronic pain and the other resumed their normal care.
Halfway through the trial, just over half (51%) of the “pain coping skills training” patients said their chronic pain was interfering with their daily activities less, compared to 37% in the other group. According to NIH’s release, “the benefit continued throughout the 24-week intervention period.”
