# COPING WITH OSTEOARTHRITIC KNEE PAIN

> **NIH NIH R01** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 1987 · $150,719

## Abstract

Chronic pain is a significant problem for many osteoarthritis
patients.  The ultimate goal of this research is to develop better
ways to evaluate and treat this pain.  Our preliminary research
revealed that pain coping strategies can be reliably assessed using
a questionnaire developed in our laboratory.  A Pain Control and
Rational Thinking factor identified through factor analysis of
questionnnaire responses explain a significant proportion of
variance in pain, physical disability, and psychological disability.
This factor was a much stronger predictor of pain and functional
impairment than x-ray ratings of disease severity, obesity status,
or age.  The proposed study examines whether a cognitive-
behavioral intervention designed to improve patients' pain coping
skills and increase their scores on the Pain Control and Rational
Thinking factor will improve patients' pain and functional status.
One hundred and fifty patients having chronic knee pain and
radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis of the knees will be
randomly assigned to three conditions:  pain coping skill training,
arthritis education, or standard care.  Subjects in the  pain coping
skills condition will attend 10 weekly group sessions training them
to recognize and reduce irrational cognitions and use attention
diversion and changes in activity patterns to control and decrease
pain.  Arthritis education subjects will attend 10 weekly group
sessions providing them with detailed information on
osteoarthritis.  Standard care subjects will receive the standard
care provided to osteoarthritic knee pain patients.  Data will be
analyzed in order to:  1) compare the efficacy of pain coping skills
training to arthritis education and standard care control on both a
short-term (10 week) and long-term (6 months) basis, and 2)
analyze the relationship of changes in pain coping strategies to
improvements in pain and function.  The longterm benefit of this
research is that it may provide osteoarthritis patients with more
effective means of coping with a chronic and often progressive
disease.  If the cognitive-behavioral intervention is effective, it
could be applied in future studies to osteoarthritis patients having
pain in other major joints such as the hip.  Programmatic research
also could be carried out to identify the elements of the
intervention that contribute most to treatment effects.  By
isolating active ingredients, one could streamline treatment,
making it more cost effective and thus more readily available to
the large population of individuals having osteoarthritic pain.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3157126
- **Project number:** 2R01AR035270-03
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** TP7EK8DZV6N5
- **Principal Investigator:** Francis J. Keefe
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1987
- **Award amount:** $150,719
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 1985-05-01 → 1990-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3157126

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3157126, COPING WITH OSTEOARTHRITIC KNEE PAIN (2R01AR035270-03). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3157126. Licensed CC0.

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