• Kurt Kroenke, Fitsum Baye, Spencer G Lourens, Erica Evans, Sharon Weitlauf, Stephanie McCalley, Brian Porter, Marianne S Matthias, and Matthew J Bair.
• VA HSR&D Center for Health Information and Communication, Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN, USA. kkroenke@regenstrief.org.
• J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Sep 1; 34 (9): 1806-1814.

BackgroundChronic musculoskeletal pain is often accompanied by depression or anxiety wherein co-occurring pain and mood symptoms can be more difficult to treat than either alone. However, few clinical trials have examined interventions that simultaneously target both pain and mood conditions.ObjectiveTo determine the comparative effectiveness of automated self-management (ASM) vs. ASM-enhanced collaborative care.DesignRandomized clinical trial conducted in six primary care clinics in a VA medical center.ParticipantsTwo hundred ninety-four patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain of at least moderate intensity and clinically significant depressive and/or anxiety symptoms.InterventionASM consisted of automated monitoring and 9 web-based self-management modules. Comprehensive symptom management (CSM) combined ASM with collaborative care management by a nurse-physician team. Both interventions were delivered for 12 months.Main MeasuresPrimary outcome was a composite pain-anxiety-depression (PAD) z-score consisting of the mean of the BPI, PHQ-9, and GAD-7 z-scores: 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8 represent potentially small, moderate, and large clinical differences. Secondary outcomes included global improvement, health-related quality of life, treatment satisfaction, and health services use.Key ResultsBoth CSM and ASM groups had moderate PAD score improvement at 12 months (z = - 0.65 and - 0.52, respectively). Compared to the ASM group, the CSM group had a - 0.23 (95% CI, - 0.38 to - 0.08; overall P = .003) greater decline in composite PAD z-score over 12 months. CSM patients were also more likely to report global improvement and less likely to report worsening at 6 (P = .004) and 12 months (P = .013).ConclusionsTwo intervention models relying heavily on telecare delivery but differing in resource intensity both produced moderate improvements in pain and mood symptoms. However, the model combining collaborative care led by a nurse-physician team with web-based self-management was superior to self-management alone.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov : NCT0175730.

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