Pain Psychology

Abstract

Chapter 5 covers the foundations of pain clinical care in the biopsychosocial model, demonstrates how this model is applied in psychological assessment and treatment planning for patients with chronic pain, and introduces the reader to the foundational concepts in pain psychology and the major categories of psychological treatments for pain. The biopsychosocial model is examined and explained in detail with application to the case scenario that opens the chapter. The assessment of patients with chronic pain is described, and the benefits and potential risks of psychological assessment are characterized. Pain psychology concepts, including pain catastrophizing, pain anxiety, and passive coping, are explained. The major treatment paradigms, including psychoeducation, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance commitment therapy, relaxation strategies, mindfulness-based therapies, biofeedback, and treatment responses, are described in detail. An application of CBT is presented, explaining to the reader the process of feeding forward through automatic thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and illustrating how this is changed positively by CBT to reduce the negative impacts of chronic pain on thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, leading ultimately to less pain and less pain interference. Pain psychology is introduced in this chapter in the context of collaborative interprofessional care models.