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NCT Number: NCT07287072

Pain Reprocessing Therapy for Chronic Primary Pain

Approximately 30% of adult Norwegians experience chronic pain, with its prevalence rising across demographics, including children and adolescents Chronic pain contributes to significant personal suffering and substantial societal costs. Traditional treatments - physical, pharmacological, and surgical - as well as psychological interventions, such as cognitive and acceptance-based therapies, demonstrate only minor to modest effects.

To address the challenge of rising demand alongside limited treatment options, university hospitals must consistently evaluate and adopt new, potentially effective therapies to meet their societal mission. Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is one such innovative treatment that has recently demonstrated promising results for a subset of chronic pain patients in a U.S. primary care setting.

In this study, the investigators want to assess the effectiveness of PRT on various outcomes in patients with primary chronic pain that has a likely nociplastic pain mechanism, within a Norwegian primary care population.

The insights from this study will be important for any prospective implementation of PRT to align with one of the guiding principles of the Norwegian healthcare system: the Best Effective Level of Care (BEON principle). The BEON principle supports the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective healthcare services and is founded on the notion of seamless integration across different levels of care. When competence or resources at the primary healthcare level are insufficient, more patients tend to be referred to higher, specialized, and inherently more costly levels of care, such as secondary and tertiary care. Therefore, if the study can demonstrate that PRT is effective within a Norwegian primary care population, the hypothesize is that its implementation could strengthen both primary and tertiary care in alignment with the BEON principle.

Active, Not Recruiting

This study is active but is not currently recruiting participants.

Key information

Conditions

Nociplastic Pain Chronic Pain Chronic Primary Pain Neurologic Manifestations Pain Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Signs and Symptoms

Age range

18 year–70 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Ullevål sykehus

Oslo, Norway

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Age between 18 and 70
  • On sick leave, or at risk of sick leave
  • Pain intensity corresponding to 3 (or more) on the NRS from the PROMIS-29.
  • Readiness to change, corresponding to the action stage from the readiness to change model, where they are ready to participate in their own change process

Exclusion criteria

  • Structural causes for their pain (rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, etc.),
  • Severe psychiatric conditions (ongoing or previous psychotic disorders, suicidality, or severe depression/anxiety/bipolar disorder)
  • Illegal substance abuse, or known dependence on benzodiazepines or opioids
  • Ongoing litigation or compensation process related to the pain condition
  • Ongoing and severe psychosocial stressors (e.g. recent divorce etc.)

Treatment and study plan

Pain Reprocessing Therapy

Behavioral

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) has shown promising results for patients with chronic primary back pain with a nociplastic pain-mechanism. PRT consists of two components. The first is an educational component (E) conducted by a physician. The purpose of the educational component is to reorient the patient's understanding of pain in accordance with the theories of nociplastic pain (false alarm based on negative expectations). The second part consists of a set of specific therapeutic techniques (T) that can be performed by a physician, psychologist, or other trained healthcare personnel. The techniques are easy to learn and have a training framework of 50 hours over a period of 3 months. They are based, among other things, on interoceptive exposure techniques, where the main point is to confront internal sensory experiences that have been interpreted as threatening (and ultimately lead to pain), with a new assurance that they do not signal danger ("false alarm").

Primary outcomes

  1. Average pain rating in the past 7 days on a numerical rating scale from 0-10 from Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System - 29 items (PROMIS-29)

    Time frame: 5-week post-treatment assessment (5 weeks after first PRT session; 1 week after final PRT session)

    Pain intensity average last week assessed through one item. The scale ranges from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst imaginable pain)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Physical function measured through PROMIS-29

    Time frame: 5-week post-treatment assessment (5 weeks after first PRT session; 1 week after final PRT session), 3 monts and at 1 year follow-up

    Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS-29) average score post-treatment on the domain Physical function. Scores range from 4-20, with higher scores indicating better function

  2. Individual goals assessed through Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS)

    Time frame: 5-week post-treatment assessment (5 weeks after first PRT session; 1 week after final PRT session), 3 months and at 1 year follow-up

    Individual goals as defined by the patient. For instance: "Running up a hill" or "playing basketball" (Ref to GAS: Ruble et al., 2012).

  3. Work participation at 1-year follow-up

    Time frame: Assessed through self-report at 5 weeks follow-up and 1 year follow-up

    Increased work participation since baseline (y/n)

  4. Patient Global Impression of Change

    Time frame: 5-week post-treatment assessment (5 weeks after first PRT session; 1 week after final PRT session)

    Patients' global impression of change in symptoms, function and quality of life (Hurst, 2004). The scale ranges from 1 (no change) to 7 (a great deal better and considerable improvement)

Other outcomes

  1. Perceived injustice

    Time frame: Baseline, 5 weeks and 1 year follow-up

    Perceived injustice measured by Injustice Experience Questionnaire. The total score ranges from 0-48, with higher score indicating more perceived injustice.

  2. Pain catastrophizing

    Time frame: Measured at 5 weeks post-treatment and at 1 year follow-up.

    Pain Catastrophizing Scale measured at 5 weeks post-treatment and at 1 year follow-up. The total score ranges from 0-52, where a higher score indicates more catastrophizing.

  3. Fear of movement or re-injury

    Time frame: Measured 5 weeks post-treatment and at 1 year follow-up.

    Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK-11). Scores range from 11 to 44, with higher score indicating more severe fear of movement.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Oslo

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Pain Reprocessing Therapy for Chronic Primary Pain Caused by a Likely Nociplastic Pain Mechanism in Primary Care: The PRIME-PRT Trial

Acronym: PRIME-PRT

Important dates

Study start
2026
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2026
First posted
Dec 17, 2025
Registry last updated
May 28, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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