Abstract: Chronic pain is a severe, often intractable, disorder that can severely impede quality of life. Medications for pain management can be useful, but often cause unpleasant side effects. This may leave patients seeking out alternative pain control resources, including those that include their spiritual beliefs and practices. Research has shown the multi-dimensional pain experience can be affected by physical, psychological, and spiritual factors. Many chronic pain patients use religious/spiritual forms of coping, such as prayer and seeking spiritual support, to cope with their pain. The primary objectives of this presentation is to review the current research on 1) potential psycho-physiological pathways linking spirituality and health, with a particular focus on chronic pain, 2) adaptive and maladaptive forms of religious/spiritual coping mechanisms, 3) religious/spiritual coping strategies frequently used by pain patients, and 4) empirically supported tools to assess adaptive and maladaptive forms of religious/spiritual coping in the context of chronic pain. The conclusion of this talk encourages providers to assess how religious/spiritual factors may be positively or negatively impacting their patient's experience with chronic pain.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Dr. Amy Wachholtz is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and the Health Psychologist on the Psychosomatic Medicine Consult Service at UMass Memorial Medical Center. She is also a clinical supervisor in the UMass Medical School/WSH Psychology Internship program. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in North Carolina and Massachusetts. Dr. Wachholtz graduated Cum Laude with a Master of Divinity degree from Boston University where she specialized in Bioethics. She the continued her education to earn a Masters and PhD in Clinical Psychology from Bowling Green State University where she had a dual specialty in Behavioral Medicine and Psychology of Religion. She completed her internship and fellowship at Duke University Medical Center where she focused on psycho-social treatment of medical illness, the promotion of wellness activities prevent illness and injury, and the use of the wellness model in recovery to prevent long term disability after an acute illness and injury. She has become an internationally recognized expert in the areas of pain and spirituality. Her clinical and research interests focus on the bio-psycho-social-spiritual model of health and wellness, chronic pain disorders, the complexities of treating of chronic or recurring pain, and treating disorders that frequently co-occur with pain, such as opioid mis-use and addiction.