Grant: Project Grant

Most people living with a spinal cord injury (SCI) experience pain every day. This chronic pain is often more physically, psychologically, and socially debilitating than the injury itself. Currently, drugs are the most frequently prescribed treatment for SCI pain, but drugs have many negative side-effects. The primary purpose of this project is to determine whether a regular program of exercise, performed in a person's home or in a local fitness facility, can significantly reduce chronic pain in adults with SCI. As secondary purposes, this study will test whether exercise has different effects on different types of pain, if exercise reduces pain by reducing inflammation in the body and reducing a person's sensitivity to pain, and if reductions in pain lead to improvements in how people feel about themselves and their lives. We will also test whether the exercise intervention has the potential to reduce health care costs. Our team includes people with expertise in exercise psychology, exercise physiology, pain, physical medicine, immunology, biostatistics, health economics, and trial design and management. Our team also includes a community-researcher with lived experience of SCI, and groups and individuals who will use the knowledge generated by this study. These knowledge users represent local, provincial and national SCI organizations. Our novel idea is that exercise performed according to a prescription specifically tailored to people with SCI, performed in one's community (rather than in a laboratory or a clinic) can be an effective behavioural strategy for reducing chronic pain. This study may also help to explain how exercise alleviates pain. By working with key stakeholders throughout the project, we will ensure the results are appropriately shared with Canadian and international end-users including clinicians, fitness programmers, people living with SCI and the community organizations that support them.