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CIH Stepped Care for Co-occurring Chronic Pain and PTSD

A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of CIH Stepped Care for Co-occurring Chronic Pain and PTSD

Who can join

Ages 18 and older · All sexes

Inclusion Criteria

In order to be eligible to participate in this study, clinic employees must meet all of the following criteria:

1. Aged 18 years or older
2. A clinic employee and/or trainee

In order to be eligible to participate in this study, patients must meet all of the following criteria:

1. Aged 18 years or older
2. English-speaking
3. A patient at the clinic from which recruitment occurs
4. Endorse chronic pain (defined as experiencing pain on more than half of the days of the past 3-months)
5. Endorse at least moderate pain severity and interference (defined as at least an average of 4 on the PEG)
6. Endorse at least 31 on the PCL-5, in combination with a Criterion A traumatic event. If we have difficulties in recruiting individuals who meet our PTSD diagnosis criteria, we will modify this criteria by removing the requirement of a Criterion A traumatic event, and require a destabilizing life event instead.

4.2 Exclusion Criteria

There are no exclusion criteria for clinic employees.

Patients who meet any of the following criteria will be excluded from participation in this study:

1. In current treatment for chronic pain and/or PTSD at their respective clinic
2. Past 2-week suicidal intention at screening
3. Severe cognitive impairment preventing individual from participating

About the study

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, appropriateness, and retention of patient participants of a CIH Stepped Care approach for co-occurring chronic pain and PTSD vs. treatment as usual in two primary care settings (one rural and one urban).

Researchers will compare CIH Stepped Care to treatment as usual.

Participants will complete assessments at baseline, 3-months, 6-months, and 9-months, and those in the CIH Stepped Care condition will participate in the intervention while also completed assessments every 2-weeks, which helps determine their treatment.

We hypothesize that, at 6-months, CIH Stepped Care will be feasible, acceptable, and appropriate (defined by an average of 4/5 on each measure) to patients and clinic employees and result in at least 70% of individuals be retained in each condition (n=21 per condition).

What is being tested

• CIH Stepped Care (behavioral)

Sponsor: University of Washington · Participants: 60 · Started: Feb 18, 2026

Contact the study team

• David Reed, PhD · Phone: 206-543-3752

Official record on ClinicalTrials.gov — NCT06219408

Locations in the U.S.

Conditions

• Chronic Pain
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

From ClinicalTrials.gov, data retrieved Sep 30, 2026. Each study sets its own eligibility; the study team decides who can join.