Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Chronic Pain Self-Management Within the Context of Opioid Reduction: The EMPOWER Study

A trained psychologist delivers pain-CBT to individual patients or groups of patients with chronic pain. Group treatment is delivered across 8 weekly sessions that last for 2 hours each. Pain-CBT incorporates interactive discussion, practice of relaxation training, action planning, and home exercises into each session. Pain-CBT is effective for reducing pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, depression and social impacts.

The CPSMP is similar to pain-CBT in format and content but is peer-led, and is effective across pain conditions (e.g., back pain, arthritis) for improving pain and pain self-efficacy. The CPSMP consists of six weekly 2-hour group sessions in which two peer co-leaders provide patient education about pain, effective self-management, pain impacts, and other symptoms from a highly structured manual. Similar to pain-CBT, CPSMP incorporates interactive discussion, practice of relaxation training, action planning, and home exercises into each session

Participants allocated to 'Taper Only' will engage in a physician-guided, patient-centered opioid tapering program without additional behavioral intervention.