Dr. Eaton receives grant

A Nonpharmacologic Intervention for Chronic Pain Relief

Chronic pain is a complex and significant problem among cancer survivors. Unrelieved pain and its physical, psychological, and social sequelae affect more than a third of the nearly 16 million cancer survivors in the United States. Cancer survivors who have completed curative treatment, have no evidence of disease, and continue to experience significant pain would benefit from a low-cost, accessible, and convenient intervention they can use to self-manage their pain at home. Linda Eaton, PhD, RN — an assistant professor at the School of Nursing and Health Studies — recently received funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research to evaluate the efficacy of a recorded hypnosis intervention (RHI) in a two-arm randomized controlled trial with 100 cancer survivors from the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and the University of Illinois Cancer Center. The RHI will be compared to the attention control condition, a recorded relaxation intervention. The assigned interventions will be used daily for 28 days by the study participants. In addition, Dr. Eaton’s research will include an assessment of mechanisms of action and variables that may indicate who is most likely to respond to hypnosis. A subgroup of 20 study participants will undergo electroencephalogram (EEG) assessments to measure brain activity while using the intervention to explore how the RHI works. The study will be completed in three years and will provide valuable information about for whom does RHI work and how RHI works in reducing chronic pain. This will allow the application of this intervention with precision among cancer survivors with chronic pain.