Past Events

Title: Developing the Next Generation of Non-Pharmacologic Approaches to Pain Management in Older Adults Presenter: Dr. M. Carrington (Cary) Reid, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine Overview: Dr. Reid will summarize what is known about current behavioral approaches to the management of later life pain, review factors that underlie the need for the development of age-appropriate approaches, and summarize recommendations from the recently released Federal Pain Research Strategy supporting these efforts.

Title: Practical Behavioral Interventions for Older Adults with Chronic Musculoskeletal Conditions Presenter: Kelli Allen, PhD, UNC School of Medicine Dr. Allen will discuss behavioral interventions including physical activity, weight management, and pain coping skills training for older adults with chronic musculoskeletal conditions (including osteoarthritis and low back pain), with an emphasis on remotely delivered programs that can be broadly disseminated.  Her discussion will include practical aspects of intervention delivery, particularly as they relate to special considerations for older adults. 

Title: PATH-Pain: A Behavioral Intervention For Older Adults With Negative Emotions And Chronic Pain In Primary Care Presenter: Dimitris Kiosses, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine Dr. Kiosses will discuss PATH-Pain, a new behavioral intervention for older adults with chronic pain and negative emotions in primary care. PATH-Pain is a manualized 8-week program for primary care that consists of 8 weekly individual sessions and 1 group educational session. All sessions are designed for patients and a willing and available study partner (e.g., family member, caregiver, friend). The goals of PATH-Pain are to reduce negative emotions associated with pain and pain-related disability, increase positive [...]

Title:  Developing, Refining, & Evaluating a Behavioral Intervention Targeting Comorbid Chronic Back Pain & Depression in Older Adults Presenter: Una Makris, MD, UT Southwestern Medical Center Chronic musculoskeletal pain (including chronic back pain) and comorbid mental health diagnoses (including depression) remain common, costly and challenging to manage. Dr. Makris will discuss the development of a behavioral intervention that simultaneously targets chronic back pain and depression in older adults. Core intervention components include patient activation, motivational interviewing, and goal setting that are employed to improve outcomes most relevant to older adults with comorbid physical pain and mental health diagnoses.

Title: A Technology-Assisted Chronic Pain Self-Management Intervention for Older Adults in a Low-income, Urban Setting Presenter: Mary Janevic, PhD, MPH, University of Michigan African American older adults living in resource-challenged settings are at high risk for pain-related disability, and have limited opportunities to learn chronic pain self-management skills that may help improve function.  Dr. Janevic will describe the development of a “high tech/high touch” pain self-management intervention that integrates physical activity monitoring and web-based instruction with support from a community health worker, to be tested in a pilot study in Detroit.