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Methods and results

We recruited 80 adults with chronic pain (pain for≥ 3 hours a day and rated≥ 4 on a 10 point scale) and assigned 40 to keeping a paper diary and 40 to an electronic diary. On satisfying the eligibility criteria, each patient was assigned to the next training session for which he or she was available, regardless of which diary it was for. We conducted one training session for each diary each week, with each training session for the paper diary matched by time and day of the week with an electronic diary training session. Participants were paid $150 and gave their informed consent; patients given the paper diary were not told that compliance would be recorded electronically.