Explaining the role of psychological factors in chronic pain using brain images

Project Summary

National guidelines consider psychological interventions a key building block to effective treatment of chronic pain. However, the rationale for targeting a physical complaint with psychological measures can be alienating to those with a traditional biomedical disease model, leading to non-compliance and the request for further diagnostic tests and high-cost but low-value interventions to find and treat an “objectifiable” cause of the pain. Together with a focus group of chronic pain patients, I will develop a website that showcases findings from brain imaging studies to explain the neural basis of pain perception and psychological pain modulation in the brain in an accessible manner. The website will be launched with a virtual public event including a presentation and tour of the website followed by a Q&A session.

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