Brief behavioral intervention for chronic pain in integrated primary care: What are we waiting for?

Abstract

Despite high rates of pain-related concerns among primary care patients and associated increases in health care costs (Gore et al., 2012; Mills et al., 2016), psychological or behavioral treatments that are well suited for use in integrated primary care (IPC) settings remain sparsely implemented. Psychological treatment for chronic pain has been recommended for many years (Darnall, 2021; Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Advancing Pain Research, Care and Education, 2011; Kligler et al., 2018), and the emphasis on the application of nonpharmacological treatment has intensified following concerns about opioid safety. There is abundant empirical support for the use of psychological treatment for chronic pain, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in specialty settings (Williams et al., 2021). The evidence to support the use of "brief treatments" in IPC is in a comparatively early stage. The limited state of the research might suggest that brief behavioral intervention for chronic pain is years away from being ready for translation to everyday clinical practice. But why wait? We therefore conducted a focused narrative review of peer-reviewed research on brief psychotherapy for chronic pain in adults that could be feasibly employed in IPC settings through more widely adopted models, such as primary care behavioral health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).