Bridging the gap: Utilizing insights from exposure therapy in the innovation of chronic musculoskeletal pain treatment.

Abstract

For some time, the gold standard treatment for anxiety disorders has been exposure therapy, defined as the repeated approach of anxiety-inducing situations, memories, or physiological sensations. Existing treatments to target fear and avoidance of pain can be augmented by innovations from exposure research in the anxiety disorders, including greater emphasis on safety learning, the utilization of imaginal exposure to catastrophic fears, and exposure to contrasting emotions. Given that treatments to target core, maintaining mechanisms of anxiety, including imaginal exposures, can be administered as self-directed treatments without therapist involvement, they represent important avenues for ensuring the millions of people with chronic musculosketal pain can gain access to psychosocial treatment and reduce the interference of pain in their lives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).