The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine has an established track record of research in the field of pain management, starting with Wilbert E. Fordyce’s seminal work on the use of operant principles to understand and treat pain in the 1960s.
Current research projects include, but are not limited to:
- understanding the efficacy of hypnosis, mindfulness, and behavioral approaches for the management of pain secondary to a variety of conditions associated with significant pain, including individuals with multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, acquired amputation, traumatic head injury, and muscular dystrophy, among others;
- evaluating the efficacy and mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of music on pain; and
- use of digital therapies for chronic pain management.
