Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41711568›Full record

ArticleJMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies2026

A Therapeutic Conversational Agent (Solace) for Management of Chronic Pain: Acceptability and Usability Study.

P Maxwell Slepian, Stephanie Buryk-Iggers, Anna M Lomanowska, Binh Nguyen, Tahir Janmohamed, Hance Clarke, Joel Katz, Nils G Niederstrasser

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In one paragraph

Article in JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

P Maxwell SlepianDepartment of Anesthesia and Pain Management, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0435-4191
Stephanie Buryk-IggersDepartment of Anesthesia and Pain Management, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0222-9517
Anna M LomanowskaDepartment of Anesthesia and Pain Management, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0847-6153
Binh NguyenManagingLife, Inc, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4320-2978
Tahir JanmohamedManagingLife, Inc, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7006-4358
Hance ClarkeDepartment of Anesthesia and Pain Management, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4975-3823
Joel KatzDepartment of Anesthesia and Pain Management, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8686-447X
Nils G NiederstrasserSchool of Psychology, Sport, and Health Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, England, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6605-2896

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundChronic pain is a critical cause of personal suffering and societal concern. However, treatment options remain inadequate, and access to efficacious treatment is limited by geography, economics, and scale. Digital health interventions for chronic pain are easily scaled solutions to this problem, and autonomous conversational agents represent a new frontier in this treatment domain. Despite their potential impact, conversational agents powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI) have yet to be developed or examined for the treatment of chronic pain.

objectiveWe aimed to develop and test Solace, a first-of-its-kind, expert-trained generative AI conversational agent designed to deliver support grounded in principles of evidence-based pain psychology.

methodsWe conducted an acceptability and usability study of Solace in a group of individuals with chronic pain. Participants (n=175) were recruited from Prolific, an online crowdsourcing platform, and interacted with Solace for at least 25 minutes. Self-report measures of system usability, treatment acceptability, and therapeutic alliance were completed after the interaction, and clinically relevant pain-related measures were completed before and after the interaction.

resultsParticipants rated the usability of Solace to be excellent (System Usability Scale mean score 85.04, SD 13.6) and found it to be an acceptable intervention for chronic pain. The therapeutic alliance between participants and Solace was rated highly. Participants also demonstrated improvements in anxiety, pain interference, kinesiophobia, and pain resilience. Safety guardrails designed to identify and manage instances of suicidal ideation, injury, or requests for medication recommendations performed appropriately during the study. Solace is a usable and acceptable treatment for chronic pain that facilitates forming a strong therapeutic alliance with users. A single 30-minute conversation with Solace was also associated with improvements in several clinically relevant domains.

conclusionsSolace is a usable and acceptable expert-trained generative AI conversational agent for pain management. Randomized clinical trials are needed to evaluate the efficacy of Solace as a strategy for the treatment of chronic pain.

trial registrationOSF Registries osf.io/9c7tv; https://osf.io/9c7tv.

Indexed as

artificial intelligencechatbotchronic paindigital healthpain psychology

Identifiers

PMID41711568
PMCPMC13049397

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.