Peer-to-Peer Support and Psychosocial Pain Management Techniques via Facebook for Chronic Pain Patients

This study explores the benefits of a private Facebook group for people dealing with chronic pain. It's common for individuals with chronic pain to seek support from others in similar situations through social media platforms like Facebook. While there are online self-management programs available, they often lack a peer support aspect as they focus on teaching patients how to manage their pain individually. This study aims to provide a platform for peer-to-peer support and disseminate psychosocial pain management techniques using Facebook. The study involves two groups: a regular Facebook group (control group) and an enhanced Facebook group moderated by clinicians offering psychosocial pain management techniques (experimental group). The experimental group includes additional components such as pain neuroscience education, emotional validation training, guided emotional disclosure, and activities to overcome emotional and behavioral avoidance. The study's results could offer valuable insights into the impact of Facebook support groups on pain management and test if psychosocial pain interventions can be effectively shared through social media. Participants in both groups will engage in peer-to-peer healthcare and support. The experimental group will also receive psychosocial pain management techniques. The study will measure changes in pain interference and severity from the start of the study to the end of the intervention and 1-month follow-up using the Brief Pain Inventory. This inventory assesses pain interference in daily activities on a scale of 0 (does not interfere) to 10 (completely interferes). It also measures pain severity, including worst pain, average pain, and a composite of four pain items, on a scale of 0 (no pain) to 10 (pain as bad as you can imagine).