Reaching experts for enhanced referral (REFER) to pain psychology: a modified Delphi approach with multidisciplinary paediatric pain providers at a specialised center in the USA.

Background: To minimise the referral gap to pain psychology, the purpose of this study was to describe clinician-perceived patient suitability for pain psychology referral, develop a referral plan and outline essential elements of a referral conversation via a modified Delphi approach with multidisciplinary paediatric pain providers.

Methods: We employed a three-round modified Delphi approach consulting multidisciplinary paediatric pain providers (n=18) including physicians, psychologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists and nurse practitioners (PT, OT, NP). Based on the responses to an online survey (Round 1), initial statements regarding the pain psychology referral process were developed.

Enhancing psychological assessment and treatment of chronic pain: A research agenda for personalized and process-based approaches.

The heterogeneity of chronic pain and stagnating improvements in treatment effectiveness have prompted calls for a shift toward personalized and process-based approaches to the assessment and treatment of chronic pain. As this opens a new line of research, several fundamental questions arise. We begin by defining key terms and reviewing attempts to personalize treatment to date.

Is personalization of psychological pain treatments necessary? Evidence from a Bayesian variance ratio meta-analysis.

This is the first study to empirically determine the potential for data-driven personalization in the context of chronic primary pain (CPP). Effect sizes of psychological treatments for individuals with CPP are small to moderate on average. Aiming for better treatment outcomes for the individual patient, the call to personalize CPP treatment increased over time.

Love yourself as a therapist, doubt yourself as an institution? Therapist and institution effects on outcome, treatment length, and dropout.

Objective: Research suggests that some therapists achieve better outcomes than others. However, an overlooked area of study is how institution differences impact patient outcomes independent of therapist variance. This study aimed to examine the role of institution and therapist differences in adult outpatient psychotherapy.

Metacognitive therapy versus exposure and response prevention for obsessive-compulsive disorder - A non-inferiority randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Exposure with response prevention (ERP) is the first-line treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, refusals, dropouts and the required high time and logistic effort constitute barriers to the use of ERP. In a non-inferiority randomized controlled trial, we compared metacognitive therapy (MCT) to exposure with response prevention (ERP) as treatments for OCD.

What time-varying network models based on functional analysis tell us about the course of a patient's problem.

Relations among psychological variables are assumed to be complex and to vary over time. Personalized networks can model multivariate complex interactions. The development of time-varying networks allows to model the variation of parameters over time.

EFFects of Exposure and Cognitive behavioral Therapy for chronic BACK pain ("EFFECT-BACK"): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: Chronic back pain is a widespread medical condition associated with high socioeconomic costs and increasing prevalence. Despite the advanced implementation of multidisciplinary approaches, providing a satisfactory treatment offer for those affected is often not possible. Exposure therapy (EXP) promises to be an effective and economical form of treatment and in a previous pilot study showed to be superior to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in reducing perceived limitations of movement.

Leveraging Single-Case Experimental Designs to Promote Personalized Psychological Treatment: Step-by-Step Implementation Protocol with Stakeholder Involvement of an Outpatient Clinic for Personalized Psychotherapy.

Our objective is to implement a single-case experimental design (SCED) infrastructure in combination with experience-sampling methods (ESM) into the standard diagnostic procedure of a German outpatient research and training clinic. Building on the idea of routine outcome monitoring, the SCED infrastructure introduces intensive longitudinal data collection, individual effectiveness measures, and the opportunity for systematic manipulation to push personalization efforts further. It aims to empower psychotherapists and patients to evaluate their own treatment (idiographic perspective) and to enable researchers to analyze open questions of personalized psychotherapy (nomothetic perspective).

Are depressive symptoms linked to a reduced pupillary response to novel positive information?-An eye tracking proof-of-concept study.

Introduction: Depressive symptoms have been linked to difficulties in revising established negative beliefs in response to novel positive information. Recent predictive processing accounts have suggested that this bias in belief updating may be related to a blunted processing of positive prediction errors at the neural level. In this proof-of-concept study, pupil dilation in response to unexpected positive emotional information was examined as a psychophysiological marker of an attenuated processing of positive prediction errors associated with depressive symptoms.

Change in pain expectations but no open-label placebo analgesia: An experimental study using the heat pain paradigm.

Background: Open-label placebos (OLP) prescribed without deception and with a convincing rationale have been shown to evoke powerful treatment effects. Patients' treatment expectations seem to influence the magnitude of the effect.

Objective: We examined if two different OLP rationales increased pain tolerance and reduced pain intensity and unpleasantness in a standardized heat pain experiment.

Does Active Inference Provide a Comprehensive Theory of Placebo Analgesia?

Placebo interventions generate mismatches between expected pain and sensory signals from which pain states are inferred. Because we lack direct access to bodily states, we can only infer whether nociceptive activity indicates tissue damage or results from noise in sensory channels. Predictive processing models propose to make optimal inferences using prior knowledge given noisy sensory data.

Sustainability of cognitive behavioural interventions for chronic back pain: A long-term follow-up.

Background: There is a significant research gap with respect to the long-term sustainability of psychological treatment effects in chronic pain patients. This study aimed to investigate long-term treatment effects of two psychological treatments: cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as a broad-spectrum approach and exposure as a specific intervention for fear-avoidant pain patients.

Methods: Patients with chronic low back pain were randomized to CBT or exposure in vivo.

Same same, but different: effects of likelihood framing on concerns about a medical disease in patients with somatoform disorders, major depression, and healthy people.

Background: Research has shown that patients with somatoform disorders (SFD) have difficulty using medical reassurance (i.e. normal results from diagnostic testing) to revise concerns about being seriously ill.

Psychological Factors Predict Higher Odds and Impairment of Post-COVID Symptoms: A Prospective Study.

Objective: The causes of the long-term persistence of symptoms after a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection (i.e., post-COVID syndrome) remain elusive.

Systematic review of training in cognitive-behavioral therapy: Summarizing effects, costs and techniques.

With the steadily growing importance of psychotherapeutic care, there is also an increasing need for high-quality training. We analyze the literature published between 2009 and 2022 on the effectiveness of training in cognitive behavioral therapy. The review addresses current gaps in the literature by focusing on the description of specific training components and their associated costs, as well as examining therapist-level predictors of training effectiveness.

Enhancing Exposure Treatment for Youths With Chronic Pain: Co-design and Qualitative Approach.

Background: Increasing the access to and improving the impact of pain treatments is of utmost importance, especially among youths with chronic pain. The engagement of patients as research partners (in contrast to research participants) provides valuable expertise to collaboratively improve treatment delivery.

Objective: This study looked at a multidisciplinary exposure treatment for youths with chronic pain through the lens of patients and caregivers with the aim to explore and validate treatment change processes, prioritize and develop ideas for improvement, and identify particularly helpful treatment elements.

How the integration of normal medical test results can be improved in patients with somatoform disorders-An experimental study.

Background: We examined whether the difficulties of patients with somatoform disorders (SFDs) in integrating medical reassurance can be altered by preventing patients from devaluing reassuring information through defensive cognitive strategies.

Method: Patients with SFD ( = 60), patients with major depression ( = 32), and healthy volunteers ( = 37) watched a videotaped doctor's report, which provided medical reassurance for gastroenterological complaints. Subsequently, participants were asked about their perception of the report.

Can placebos reduce intrusive memories?

After traumatic experiences, intrusive memories can flash back and evoke significant distress. Here, we investigated whether the frequency and severity of intrusions can be reduced by the provision of placebo. After the (online) exposure to the trauma-film paradigm, healthy participants (N = 112) received deceptive placebo (DP), open-label placebo (OLP), or no treatment.

Remotely Provided Open-Label Placebo Reduces Frequency of and Impairment by Allergic Symptoms.

Objective: Placebos being prescribed with full honesty and disclosure (i.e., open-label placebo [OLP]) have been shown to reduce symptom burden in a variety of conditions.

The Behavior Avoidance Test: Association With Symptom Severity and Treatment Outcome in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Behavior therapy of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) aims to reduce avoidance, rituals, and discomfort in OCD-relevant situations. The Behavioral Avoidance Test (BAT) measures these behavior-related outcomes in individually challenging OCD-related situations. The association of the BAT with OCD severity measures and its relevance for treatment outcome is, however, still unclear.

Effects of a video intervention on physicians' acceptance of pain apps: a randomised controlled trial.

Objectives: The aim of our study was to determine and enhance physicians' acceptance, performance expectancy and credibility of health apps for chronic pain patients. We further investigated predictors of acceptance.

Design: Randomised experimental trial with a parallel-group repeated measures design.

How expectancy violations facilitate learning to cope with pain - An experimental approach.

Background: Expectations of painful sensations constitute a core feature of chronic pain. An important clinical question is whether such expectations are revised when disconfirming experiences are made (e.g.