UCLA receives $7.1M federal grant to expand psychotherapy treatment for chronic pain

(Press-News.org) UCLA Health has received a $7.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to expand research into a newer form of psychotherapy that has been shown to more significantly alleviate chronic pain among older adults compared to traditional cognitive behavioral therapy. 

The planned five-year clinical trial will work with nearly 700 war veterans at seven U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs centers throughout the country to evaluate the effectiveness of the therapy, known as emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET). Developed in the 2010s, EAET aims to show patients that the brain’s perception of pain is strongly influenced by stress-related emotions. Patients are helped to emotionally process stressful interactions, from anything as mundane as being cut off by a driver to severe traumas such as sexual assault, with the goal of changing brain circuits dealing with both pain and emotion to reduce or eliminate chronic pain.  

The trial will be led by Dr. Brandon Yarns, assistant professor at UCLA Health’s Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. 

Previous research by Yarns found that nearly four times as many veterans experienced significant pain relief with EAET compared to traditional cognitive behavioral therapy (63% vs 17%). 

That study, including 126 patients, was the first full-scale clinical trial of EAET among older adults, older men and veterans, with past studies being largely made up of younger, female participants, Yarns said.  

The new five-year trial will be a pragmatic trial to test the therapy’s effectiveness in real-world clinical sites for potential widespread adoption. The trial will scale up the treatment to 672 older veterans across seven Veterans Affairs locations throughout the U.S. The first year will be used prepare the sites, train clinicians and interview veterans who will be participating, with treatment occurring in the following four years. 

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