Biobehavioral Pain Management in TMD

Study Summary

TMD is a poorly understood chronic pain disorder that affects up to 15% of the adult population, notably impacting women, is linked to greater healthcare utilization, and associated with multiple pain-related co-morbidities. Pain-related catastrophizing (CAT) and sleep continuity disturbance (SCD) are well established modifiable risk factors for TMD and other idiopathic pain conditions. Neither the causal status nor the neurobiological mechanisms by which these factors exert their effects on clinical pain have been established. We propose that CAT and SCD influence clinical pain through shared alterations in pain modulation and key neurobiological pathways, including amplified inflammatory activity, autonomic activity, and adrenocortical functioning. Beyond these shared mechanisms, however, we propose to determine whether pre-sleep CAT increases cortical arousal during sleep. The cognitive dimensions of pre-sleep arousal, particularly rumination and negative sleep-related thoughts, are central to the phenomenology of insomnia. Extending this notion, we propose that CAT in those experiencing ongoing clinical pain fosters sleep disturbance owing to increased pre- and peri-sleep cognitive arousal. Moreover, we propose that pre-sleep CAT is related to subtle variations in objective indices of fragmented sleep (e.g., cortical arousal). We will examine key hypotheses derived from this framework using a brief, prospective randomized experiment, which will permit careful analysis of the temporal patterning of how changes in either CAT or SCD influence each other and contribute to alterations in pain modulatory systems, key nociceptive mechanisms, and clinical pain. Women experiencing at least moderate chronic TMD pain (N=225) who demonstrate at least mild trait catastrophizing and meet at least subclinical insomnia criteria (SCD) will be randomly assigned to: 1) cognitive therapy for catastrophizing (CT-CAT); 2) behavior therapy for sleep disturbance (BT-SCD); or 3) TMD ed

Primary Outcome

Two interventions that experimentally manipulate TMJD pain risk factors (behavioral therapy focusing on sleep continuity disturbance \[BT-SCD\] and cognitive therapy focusing on pain-related catastrophizing \[CT-CAT\]) will be compared with a control (education about TMJD and its treatments), to assess changes in and temporal relationships of pain modulation, pain-evoked inflammatory activity and clinical pain. PAIN MODULATION: Mid change (Visit 6 to Visit 8) in temporal summation and Condition

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Cognitive Therapy for Catastrophizing
• BEHAVIORAL Behavioral Therapy for Sleep Continuity Disturbance

Study Locations (2)