Pain Acceptance Training in Patients Experiencing Emotional Distress and Somatic Symptoms: Examination of Dialectical Thinking as a Mediating Factor

Somatic symptoms, including physical pain, are highly prevalent among mental health patients. Current treatments have limited effectiveness for these symptoms, primarily because of patients' diminished introspective capacity and lack of emotional awareness. The current study proposes pain acceptance training as a new intervention. This intervention relies on the tenets of dialectical thinking, particularly on maintaining a dialectic perspective - at once acknowledging both the desire to end the pain and the ability to accept it as it is. We aim to examine the following: (1) the efficacy of pain acceptance training in the alleviation of somatic pain in patients with somatic symptoms; (2) the role of dialectical thinking as a mediator of pain acceptance training efficacy.

NCT Number	NCT07067619
Lead Sponsor	University of Haifa Collaborators: Rambam Health Care Campus
Conditions	Chronic Pain, Somatic Pain, Comorbid Pain and Emotional Difficulties
Enrollment	100 participants
Start Date	2024-12-01
Primary Completion	2026-12 (estimated)
Study Completion	2026-12 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-05-04