Psychosocial Interventions for Chronic Pain in Women and Girls

This book is the first comprehensive edited volume focused on treatment approaches for chronic pain specifically in women and girls. Utilizing evidence-based psychosocial techniques, it is directly applicable to the work of all mental health practitioners, and provides a rich resource of descriptions of chronic pain conditions that predominantly or uniquely impact women and girls, as well as practical guidance for implementing treatment, enriched by detailed case studies. Since chronic pain in women and girls is often minimized or dismissed in the medical setting, this book provides new insights into the understanding and management of chronic pain specifically in the female population.

“Few conditions affect quality-of-life to a greater degree than unrelenting chronic pain. Dr. Payne has assembled a series of state-of-the-art treatment protocols for the 26% of women and girls who live with this debilitating problem. This book will be the go-to resource for every clinician treating chronic pain in women.”

– David H. Barlow, PhD, ABPP. Professor Emeritus, Boston University

“Finally, there is a book on pain dedicated to women and girls! This is long in coming, given that many chronic pain conditions are more prevalent in women than in men. This book is a “must” for any clinician who treats women or girls.”

– Lonnie Zeltzer, MD, Emerita Distinguished Professor, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

“This book is an essential and timely contribution to the field. Dr. Payne and the contributors confront the persistent stigma surrounding women’s pain with scientific rigor and compassion. This book is a vital resource for anyone committed to advancing equitable, effective pain care.”

– Christine B. Sieberg, PhD, EdM, MA, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

“This timely volume addresses a critical gap by focusing on the unique experiences of women and girls with chronic pain. At a time when we increasingly recognise the gendered dimensions of pain, this book is an essential resource for practitioners.”

– Johan W.S. Vlaeyen, PhD. Maastricht University, Netherlands KU Leuven University, Belgium

Laura A. Payne is a clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital and Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She received her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and subsequently her PhD from Boston University Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. During her graduate work, she was an initial co-developer and co-author of the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders – a transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatment for emotional disorders – and her dissertation focused on evaluating two key components of the Unified Protocol and applying them to individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder. During her postdoctoral fellowship at the UCLA Pediatric Pain Program, she extended these concepts to the treatment of pain, adapting the Unified Protocol to address both pain and emotions (anxiety/depression) in a sample of adolescents with chronic pain. Dr. Payne was awarded an NIH Postdoctoral National Research Service Award to understand the relationship of emotion regulation strategies to acute pain in children with chronic pain, and she was recognized for her work in 2010 with the UCLA Chancellor’s Award for Postdoctoral Research. She then continued to explore central nervous system pain mechanisms in adolescent girls and young adult women with menstrual pain, through both a UCLA Bridge Award and then through an NIH Career Development Award. She also received a UCLA Children’s Discovery and Innovation Institute Seed Grant to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a behavioral intervention for reducing pain catastrophizing in girls and young women with menstrual pain. Dr. Payne has since continued her research exploring centralized pain mechanisms involved in adolescents and adults with menstrual pain, including brain, behavior, psychological, and hormonal factors involved in the transition to chronic pain in this population. In 2019, she moved her lab to McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School where she subsequently received additional NIH and Department of Defense grants to further her research. Clinically, Dr. Payne provides evidence-based psychological care to women with all types of chronic pain, with a particular focus on pelvic and genital pain.