Like Mind, Like Body Life After Opioids: How Pain Can Improve Without Pills (Beth Darnall, PhD)
Apr 27, 2018
Beth Darnall, PhD, pain psychologist and Stanford clinical professor who leads opioid tapering research. She recounts her journey from early chronic pain to ditching opioids. Talks cover how trauma and thoughts shape pain biology. Explains patient-centered, slow opioid tapering and tests combining tapering with behavioral supports. Urges wider use of digital and psychological pain treatments.
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Young Patient Sent Home With Vicodin
- Beth Darnall recounts getting Vicodin at 19 after unexplained pain and a traumatic loss and later stopping because it dulled life.
- She taught herself stress and emotion skills to manage pain without opioids over her twenties.
Trauma Shapes The Nervous System
- Childhood trauma can shape the nervous system, immune responses, and even gene expression.
- How a person encodes and personalizes an event predicts its long-term impact on pain more than the event itself.
Thoughts Can Grow Pain In The Brain
- Focusing attention and catastrophizing literally activates the brain regions that process pain.
- By changing attention and thoughts, people can reduce the pain their brain amplifies.