Remotely delivered Spring Forest Qigong™ to reduce neuropathic pain in adults with spinal cord injury

Research Objectives: To determine if a remotely delivered Qigong intervention could decrease neuropathic pain in adults with spinal cord injury (SCI). Secondary outcomes included pain interference with sleep, mood, and daily activities.

Of the 299,000 Americans with SCI,1 40%-60% have debilitating neuropathic pain. Pharmacological treatments provide insufficient pain relief.2-3 Qigong, a mind-body approach, has been shown to reduce pain in adults with musculoskeletal pain.4-6

Design: Single group, pre-post study design.

Setting: Remote, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Participants: Six women and 12 men with SCI-related neuropathic pain (average age: 59.61±11.54 years, and average time since injury: 15.17±11.16 years) were recruited from fliers, recruitment letters, and posting on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04917107).

Interventions: Participants practiced with an online 41min video at least 3x/week for 12 weeks. The “Five Element Spring Forest Qigong Healing Movement” video included gentle horizontal and vertical movements of upper and lower body, with guided breathing. The practice could be performed standing, sitting, or lying down. All participants performed kinesthetic imagery, in addition to moving to the level of their ability.

Main Outcome Measures: We measured neuropathic pain levels with the Numeric Pain Rating scale and interference of sleep, mood, and quality of life, with the International SCI-Basic Pain Data Set (version 2.0).

Results: Large effect sizes were found for neuropathic pain reduction after 12 weeks of Qigong compared to baseline for highest (Cohen’s d=1.70), average (d=1.12), and lowest neuropathic pain intensity levels (d=1.08), as well as for reduction in pain interference on mood (d=1.36), sleep (d=1.41), and daily activities (d=1.14). These results were maintained at the 6-week follow-up.

Conclusions: This pilot study shows promising results of reducing SCI-related neuropathic pain and pain interference with a remote Qigong intervention.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors have nothing to disclose.