New telehealth intervention may relieve pain in patients with ESKD on hemodialysis
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Patients receiving the intervention had a 6% increase in energy levels.
- Additionally, patients’ pain severity scores improved by 10%.
A new patient-guided telehealth intervention may relieve fatigue and pain in patients on long-term hemodialysis for end-stage kidney disease, recently published data show.
“We designed the Technology Assisted Stepped Collaborative Care (TCcare) intervention ... [using] a flexible approach to offer clinical treatment options that were tailored to individual preferences and treatment responses,” Manisha Jhamb, MD, MPH, in the department of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues, wrote.
TCcare stepped collaborative care included telehealth cognitive behavioral therapy sessions delivered in the hemodialysis unit or patient home for 12 weeks.
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and University of New Mexico conducted a parallel-group, single-blinded, randomized clinical trial of 160 adults on long-term hemodialysis and who were considering treatment for clinically significant fatigue, pain or depression.
The intervention group received 12 weekly telehealth sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy, while an attention-control comparison group got six sessions of health education.
Primary outcomes were changes in fatigue, pain severity and depression at 3 months.
Results showed that compared with the control group, patients who received TCcare had a 6% increase in energy levels and a 10% improvement in pain severity at 3-month follow-up. Effects were sustained at 6 months, while depression improved marginally at 3 months.
“These results are really promising and in the range seen by similar interventions for cancer patients,” Jhamb said in a press release. “Until now, analgesic medications for pain and recommendations for better sleep and exercise to address fatigue have been the main suggestions we’ve been able to offer our patients, and they haven’t been satisfactory.”
Working jointly with patients’ dialysis and primary care teams, the TCcare intervention can be “significantly effective,” the researchers wrote.
“Leveraging telemedicine to deliver [cognitive behavioral therapy] CBT that targets symptom clusters during hemodialysis sessions may provide a scalable and resource-efficient approach to improve patient-centered outcomes among patients with ESKD undergoing long-term hemodialysis.”
Reference:
- Patient-led intervention first to successfully address multiple difficult symptoms in dialysis patients. https://www.upmc.com/media/news/062023-dialysis-intervention. Published June 20, 2023. Accessed June 27, 2023.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts