Non-Cardiac Chest Pain. Evaluation of a brief psychosocial intervention for patients presenting in an Emergency Department with non-cardiac chest pain to see whether this reduces non-essential health service use.

The effects of health anxiety cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) versus treatment as usual (TAU) on representations to the emergency department (ED) or general practitioner (GP) over the next 12 months in patients with non-cardiac chest pain (NCPP).

Status

Not yet recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ANZCTR

Registry ID

ACTRN12612000133831

Enrollment

400

Registered

2012-01-31

Start date

2012-03-01

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2020-01-13

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

Chest pain is one of the commonest reasons for presenting to an Emergency Department (ED). The majority of this chest pain is non-cardiac in origin. Current methods of dealing with this non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP) using reassurance are not very effective. We propose to evaluate a brief (3-4 session) psychosocial intervention using modified cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques to reduce the distress associated with NCCP. This will include teaching coping skills, stress management and cardiac risk factor reduction. This NCCP directed CBT may help reduce the inappropriate use of health services resulting in significant cost savings for New Zealand. The training and supervision requirements are modest and ED and cardiac nurses can be trained to use these techniques to enhance patient outcomes throughout New Zealand.

Interventions

NCCP modified cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). a) 1 x 1 hour of treatment per week. b) Overall duration of treatment is four weeks c) Mode of administration is one-on-one, face-to-face sessions with health clinicians.

Study design

Allocation

Randomised controlled trial

Intervention model

Parallel

Primary purpose

Treatment

Masking

Open (masking not used)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Any patient presenting to Emergency Department with non-cardiac chest pain.

Exclusion criteria

a) Unable to understand English or Maori sufficiently to be able to complete questionnaires; b) Currently cardiac pathology suspected and being investigated; c) Currently under psychiatric care.

Outcome results