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Promoting Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors in Patients with Persistent Pain

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Abstract

Pain avoidance plays a central role in patients with persistent pain. Health-care professionals can help people with persistent pain through various lifestyle approaches, including values clarification and values connection exercises, mindfulness practices, and behaviors that promote commitment to change. Selected interventions should be implemented in primary care and specialty care settings due to the high prevalence of chronic pain. This chapter provides an evidence-based review of conditions associated with chronic pain, interactions between lifestyle behaviors and the experience of pain, and specific psychological interventions that promote lifestyle behavior change. A case example illustrates the deployment of recommended strategies in both individual and group formats.

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Abbreviations

ACT:

Acceptance and commitment therapy

APA:

American Psychological Association

BHC:

Behavioral health consultant

DDD:

Degenerative disc disease

EHR:

Electronic health record

NEEDS:

Nutrition, exercise, enjoyment, don’t smoke or drink, and sleep

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Correspondence to Patricia Robinson PhD .

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Robinson, P., Bauman, D., Beachy, B. (2016). Promoting Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors in Patients with Persistent Pain. In: Mechanick, J., Kushner, R. (eds) Lifestyle Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24687-1_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24687-1_26

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-24685-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-24687-1

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