Collaborative Care Versus Usual Care to Improve Quality of Life, Pain, Depression, and Physical Activity in Outpatients With Spinal Cord Injury: The SCI-CARE Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

This research investigates whether a coordinated healthcare approach, called collaborative care (CC), is more effective than standard care (UC) for improving the well-being of outpatients with spinal cord injury (SCI). Collaborative care involves a care manager who helps patients manage pain, depression, and physical activity by providing assessment, coordination, support, and brief psychological interventions. The study compared collaborative care to usual care in 174 SCI outpatients. Participants in the collaborative care group received up to 12 sessions with a care manager, while those in the usual care group received standard medical and rehabilitation care. The primary goal was to see if collaborative care improved the patients' quality of life. The results showed that while there was no significant difference in overall quality of life, collaborative care led to significant improvements in pain interference and depression symptoms compared to usual care. This suggests that collaborative care is a promising model for managing chronic conditions like pain and depression in SCI patients.

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  There was a non-significant trend for greater improvement in quality of life in the collaborative care group versus the usual care group at 4 months.
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  Those receiving collaborative care reported significantly greater improvement in pain interference at 4- and 8-months and in depression at 4-months compared to usual care.
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  There was no significant effect on physical activity between the collaborative care and usual care groups.