Centering Patients' Psychological State Key to Treating Pain Without Opioids

SAN DIEGO — Doctors should use the U.S. opioid epidemic’s place at the center of the national conversation as an incentive to rethink the way they look at pain, starting with a focus on the patient’s emotional and psychological state, panelists said during the second day of WorkCompCentral’s Comp Laude Awards and Gala. Pain can’t be understood or treated properly without an awareness of these factors, said Beth Darnall, a professor at Stanford University whose primary research focus is pain treatment. Darnall was one of three panelists who spoke during ...