Publications by authors named "Michele M Evans"

Background: Young adults with chronic pain and symptoms experience disruptions to their social, emotional, physical, and vocational functioning. Interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation programs for pediatric and adult populations are not designed specifically to address the developmental needs of young adults.

Methods: This article describes the development of a novel intensive interdisciplinary outpatient rehabilitation program tailored to the unique needs of young adults with chronic pain and symptoms.

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Background: Interdisciplinary cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for chronic pain is effective at improving function, mood and pain interference among individuals with disabling chronic pain. Traditionally, CBT assumes that cognitive change is an active therapeutic ingredient in the determination of treatment outcome. Pain catastrophizing, a cognitive response style that views the experience of pain as uncontrollable, permanent and destructive, has been identified as an important maladaptive cognition which contributes to difficulties with the management of chronic pain.

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Unlabelled: Chronic pain is a major public health concern, and widespread use of prescription opioids for chronic pain has contributed to the escalating problem of opioid use disorder. Interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation programs (IPRPs) can be highly effective in discontinuing opioids in patients with chronic pain while also improving functional status. This study sought to examine self-report and performance-based functional outcomes of 2 cohorts of patients enrolled in a 3-week IPRP: patients engaged in interdisciplinary pain treatment and physician-supervised opioid taper versus nonopioid users engaged in interdisciplinary treatment.

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Objectives: In the context of widespread opioid use, increased emphasis has been placed on the potentially deleterious effects of concurrent benzodiazepine (BZD) and opioid use. Although use of opioids in chronic pain has been a major focus, BZD use is equally concerning. Thus, the primary aim of this study was to determine the associations between BZD and opioid use in adults with chronic pain upon admission to an outpatient interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation (IPR) program.

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OBJECTIVE : Pain catastrophizing is an important predictor of functioning and disability among individuals with chronic pain, and modification of catastrophic interpretations of pain is a proposed treatment mechanism of pain rehabilitation. The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between changes in catastrophic thinking and treatment outcomes for a large sample of patients with chronic pain. METHODS : 648 adult patients with chronic pain completed a 3-week intensive outpatient comprehensive pain rehabilitation program.

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Objective: Despite current guideline recommendations against the use of opioids for the treatment of fibromyalgia pain, opioid use is reported in approximately 30% of the patient population. There is a lack of information describing the process and results of tapering of chronic opioids. The purpose of this study is to describe opioid tapering and withdrawal symptoms in fibromyalgia patients on opioids.

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