Report from the American Academy of Pain Medicine Annual Meeting, February 3-6, 2010
An Interview with Jonas I. Bromberg, Psy.D.
| Jonas Bromberg, Psy.D., is a clinical health psychologist with extensive experience helping patients manage and cope with chronic illness, make health enhancing behavior change, and reduce health risks. This was his first time attending the American Academy of Pain Medicine annual meeting. At the meeting Dr. Bromberg presented research he conducted as a Senior Research Scientist at Inflexxion, Inc., on the painACTION website. |
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Questions
1: What was your overall impression of the conference?
 2: Please describe one of your conference highlights.
3: Tell me briefly about the research you presented.
4: Do you know the plan for future AAPM meetings?
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evelyn Corsini, M.S.W.:
What was your overall impression of the conference? Jonas I. Bromberg, Psy.D.: For me, as a health psychologist, this was a very medically focused meeting, clearly not developed for mental health practitioners. Few of the sessions and few of the posters were devoted to non-medical aspects of chronic pain. Most of the conference attendees were physicians who specialized in pain medicine. In spite of this, I heard many discussions going on about the fact that using medications, procedures, or surgery, is only one part of solving the pain puzzle. I heard one physician say that the philosophy of his practice was “if you’re just looking for a pill, don’t come to me.” I heard physicians discussing the helplessness they sometimes feel with their patients that are struggling with psychological and social issues. So, I felt that there was a lot of eagerness on the part of these clinicians to learn more about what they can do to help their patients with the psychological and social aspects of living with chronic pain. For the most part, physicians clearly recognize the emotional needs that their patients have, but they just don’t know exactly what to do about it. But as a psychologist, that makes sense, because I wouldn’t know what surgeries or medications to recommend to a patient. 
EC: Please describe one of your conference highlights. JB: The conference sessions were divided into three separate tracks: an interventional track; an integrative track; and a patient-centered care track. In the integrative track I enjoyed the session entitled “Mindfulness, Embodiment, and Brain Power: The Unity of Mind, Body, and Brain in Pain Treatment.” The faculty included Marcia J. Howton, MD from the University of Nevada at Reno, Michael H. Moskowitz, MD, MPH, from University of California – Davis School of Medicine, and Marla D. Golden, DO, from the University of Florida.
The session addressed some really important issues in terms of looking at patients holistically, and provided clinicians with an excellent overview of the connection of chronic pain with emotion and cognition. The presenters made a strong argument that no pain exists at the site of a structural injury alone, that the patient, their injury and their perception of their pain, exists as a whole. The session focus was on the accumulating body of research and clinical evidence underscoring the efficacy of mindfulness-based approaches to treating pain. Chronic pain patients, who often struggle with a lack of hope and experience great stress, can use these approaches to improve their functionality, increase their sense of well-being, and feel more optimism. This presentation reinforced for me, the importance of pain management clinicians viewing their patients as an interconnected bio-psycho-social system.
EC: Tell me briefly about the research you presented. JB: We studied people with migraine headache who used the painACTION website over a six month period of time. The intent of painACTION is to stimulate active patient coping and self-management, and reduce the risk of co-morbid psychological problems interfering with pain treatment. We found that the website helped participants increase their self-efficacy to manage their headaches, increased their use of relaxation and social support, and decreased pain catastrophizing, depression, and stress, compared to a control group. Even though their actual pain levels didn’t decrease significantly, after using painACTION people clearly felt better able to cope and manage their emotional response to pain. All that goes a long way to improving the quality of life for people with chronic pain, and increases the chance that overall they’ll have better medical outcomes.
EC: Do you know the plan for future AAPM meetings? JB: The next annual meeting for AAPM is in the planning stage, and is scheduled to be held in March 2011 in Washington, D.C.
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