Mind your pain: A single-arm feasibility study to assess a smartphone-based interoceptive attention training for patients with chronic low back pain.

Objective: People commonly cope with chronic low back pain (cLBP) by ignoring and distraction. Can mindful interoceptive exposure to the pain sensation itself and its phenomenological components be an alternative approach?

Methods: Single-arm feasibility study in patients with cLBP using a 2-minute attention exercise guided by a smartphone app several times per day over 8 weeks. We assessed feasibility, pre/post pain, function, and psychological parameters using mixed methods: standard questionnaires, ecological momentary assessment, and exit interviews that included micro-phenomenology technique and subsequent reflexive thematic qualitative analysis.

Comparing Pain Outcomes and Treatment Adherence Between In-Person and Virtual Interdisciplinary Pain Rehabilitation Programs at the San Francisco VA Health Care System.

Objective: This study compared clinical pain outcomes between patients in a pain treatment program that was conducted in-person, compared with a virtual program.

Methods: In-person (N=127) and virtual (N=101) pain treatment programs were compared based on patient-reported, practitioner-collected, and medical record data. The patients were measured at baseline and post-treatment (week 12 for In-Person and week 8 for Virtual patients).

Neuroanatomical dimensions in medication-free individuals with major depressive disorder and treatment response to SSRI antidepressant medications or placebo.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a heterogeneous clinical syndrome with widespread subtle neuroanatomical correlates. Our objective was to identify the neuroanatomical dimensions that characterize MDD and predict treatment response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants or placebo. In the COORDINATE-MDD consortium, raw MRI data were shared from international samples ( = 1,384) of medication-free individuals with first-episode and recurrent MDD ( = 685) in a current depressive episode of at least moderate severity, but not treatment-resistant depression, as well as healthy controls ( = 699).

Expectation of pain and relief: A dynamical model of the neural basis for pain-trauma co-morbidity.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is highly co-morbid with chronic pain conditions. When present, PTSD significantly worsens chronic pain outcomes. Likewise, pain contributes to a more severe PTSD as evidenced by greater disability, more frequent use of harmful opioid analgesics and increased pain severity.