The purpose of this study is to determine if two treatments, a biofeedback and behavioral protocol, for recurrent abdominal pain are equally effective.
Recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) is a functional disorder that affects approximately 10 to 25% of children in the United States. This population tends to be heavy medical users in a search of a treatment for the chronic pain, but at this time there is no standard treatment protocol. The literature proposes that there are two effective treatments for RAP, a relaxation protocol by Sanders et al. (1994) and a biofeedback protocol currently in use at Kaiser, but neither treatment has been widely accepted as standard treatment. A purpose of this study is to gather more data on both treatments to help move one or both treatments into the standard of care for RAP. The hypothesis of this study is that the biofeedback and the relaxation protocols will have equivalent treatment outcomes.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Biofeedback will teach resonant frequency breathing for 6-8 sessions
Behavioral protocol will teach a variety of pain management techniques such as relaxation, distraction, and coping statements over 6-8 sessions
Kaiser Permanente Vandever Medical Offices
San Diego, California, United States
The measurable primary outcome will use equivalency testing on changes in pain diary ratings, using the average weekly pain intensity and frequency as recorded in the pain dairy
Time frame: 3 Months
A measurable secondary outcome will be changes in heart rate variability
Time frame: 3 Months
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