Behavioural and psychosocial interventions for pain management

Patients with advanced disease commonly report pain as one of their most feared and distressing symptoms. A biomedical treatment approach that focuses solely on biological factors can be helpful but often fails to adequately address important psychological, social, and spiritual factors that can contribute to pain. Behavioural and psychosocial approaches to understanding and treating pain in patients with advanced disease can be quite helpful in this context. These approaches not only have the potential to reduce pain but also improve patients’ overall adjustment to life-limiting disease. This chapter provides an overview of these approaches. It is divided into four sections, including a summary of the prevalence and undertreatment of pain in patients with advanced disease, a rationale for behavioural and psychosocial approaches to pain management, an overview of the most common and effective behavioural and psychosocial approaches, and clinical considerations and future directions.