Acting Assistant Professor Erin G Mistretta, PhD, has received a $819, 914, five-year K23 Career Development Award from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, part of the National Institutes of Health.
The award supports Dr. Mistretta’s project, Optimizing Mindfulness for Chronic Pain in Multiple Sclerosis, which focuses on understanding and improving how people with multiple sclerosis engage with mindfulness practice as part of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). While MBCT is an effective tool for managing chronic pain, benefits vary for individuals, and regular mindfulness practice outside of therapy sessions plays an important role in treatment benefits.
Dr. Mistretta’s project focuses on identifying and addressing challenges that make it difficult to maintain a mindfulness practice in daily life. During an eight-week MBCT, the study will examine factors that influence when and how participants are able to practice mindfulness. The research team will use this information to develop personalized, smartphone-based supports, then rigorously test which ones lead to more mindfulness practice by varying the timing and types of support each person receives throughout the study.
In addition to supporting the research project, this award provides training in innovative methods for tracking health behaviors in everyday life and building digital health tools to support behavior change. This training will lay the groundwork for future research on personalized mindfulness and behavioral interventions to people across a range of chronic health conditions.