Nonpharmacological and Self-Care Approaches Measure from PMC (NSCAP)

Description of Instrument

Individuals with chronic pain frequently engage in nonpharmacologic treatments or self-care-based approaches to manage their pain. Documenting engagement with these treatments and approaches is important for many pain trials, but virtually no standardized questionnaires exist to measure such engagement. The NSCAP is a 9-item instrument, developed within the Pain Management Collaboratory, which evaluates multiple aspects of engagement in pain management approaches such as acupuncture, massage, exercise, and meditation. The NSCAP assesses the frequency, targeted outcome (e.g., “to manage pain”), perceived effectiveness, and setting of these approaches. It is a relatively new instrument and is being used in current trials (e.g., Burgess et al., 2020; Seal et al., 2020).

References

Burgess DJ, Evans R, Allen KD, Bangerter A, Bronfort G, Cross LJ, Ferguson JE, Haley A, Hagel EM, Mahaffey MR, Matthias MS, Meis LA, Polusny MA, Serpa JG, Taylor SL, Taylor, BC. (2020.) Learning to Apply Mindfulness to Pain (LAMP): Design for a pragmatic clinical trial of two mindfulness-based interventions for chronic pain. Pain Medicine. Dec; 21(Suppl 2): S29–S36

Seal KH, Becker WC, Murphy JL, Purcell N, Denneson LM, Morasco BJ, Martin AM, Reddy K, Iseghem TV, Krebs EE, Painter JM, Hagedorn H, Pyne JM, Hixon J, Maguen S, Neylan TC, Borsari B, DeRonne B, Gibson C, Matthias MS, Frank JW, Krishnaswamy A, Li Y, Bertenthal D, Chan A, Nunez A, McCamish N. Whole Health Options and Pain Education (wHOPE): A Pragmatic Trial Comparing Whole Health Team vs Primary Care Group Education to Promote Nonpharmacological Strategies to Improve Pain, Functioning, and Quality of Life in Veterans-Rationale, Methods, and Implementation. Pain Medicine. 2020 Dec 12;21(Suppl 2):S91-S99. PMID: 33313734