The efficacy of a brief behavioral health intervention for managing high utilization of ED services by chronic pain patients.

Introduction: Patients with chronic pain continue to seek medical care from emergency departments nationwide despite the fact that an emergency department is a less-than-optimal environment for meeting their specific and specialized needs. As the scientific community has gained a more sophisticated understanding of the mechanisms that contribute to the development and maintenance of chronic pain, the central role of psychological factors have emerged. Therefore, an ED-based, behavioral health intervention for chronic pain patients is needed to better serve this population and to help hospitals provide cost effective treatment at the appropriate level of care.

No evidence for ethnic and racial bias in the Tryout Edition of the Merrill-Palmer Scale-Revised.

This research examined a revised version of the Merrill-Palmer Scale, a test of childhood development, to assess the cultural validity of items, i.e., Differential Item Functioning.