Learning About Managing Pain (LAMP)

This patient workbook is based on a multi-year effort to provide effective cognitive-behavioral therapy for chronic pain to people with low health literacy. The patient workbook and worksheets within the manual were reduced from the tenth-grade level to the fifth-grade level, consistent with health literacy guidelines. 

This patient workbook is based on a multi-year effort to provide cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for chronic pain to people with low health literacy. Typical approaches to the management of chronic pain have focused on biomedical treatments, which are expensive and have undesirable side-effects. Recent clinical practice guidelines stress non-pharmacological approaches to chronic pain management, but access to CBT is limited, particularly 
in low-SES communities. The problem of limited literacy is a growing concern and many Americans lack the ability to use print materials in everyday life. Many studies have demonstrated the link between limited literacy skills and poor health outcomes among adults in the U.S. Further, cognitive therapy requires some abstract thinking and problem solving, and this workbook provides a simplified approach in an effort to best promote these skills in patients with limited literacy. The written materials in this patient workbook were reduced from the tenth-grade level to the fifth-grade level, consistent with health literacy guidelines.

Beverly E. Thorn, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Psychology at the University of Alabama, where she was on the faculty for 30 years, serving as Director of the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program for 15 years and Department Chair for a 5-year term. She received her Ph.D. in bio-clinical psychology from Southern Illinois University in 1980, satisfying the degree requirements for a doctorate in clinical psychology as well as physiological psychology. She is a licensed psychologist, and board certified in Clinical Health Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. She is a Fellow of the Societies for Health Psychology (Division 38 of the American Psychological Association), Clinical Psychology (Division 12 of the American Psychological Association), and of the Society for Behavioral Medicine. She has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including Health Psychology, Pain, Journal of Pain, and European Journal of Pain. Dr. Thorn’s research has focused on investigating the important components of cognitive-behavioral treatment for chronic painful conditions. Dr. Thorn has held research grants from the National Institutes of Health as well as private foundations, and received one of the first research awards given by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Since her official retirement in September 2016, she has remained professionally active, focusing her research and clinical efforts on dissemination and implementation of cognitive-behavioral therapy for chronic pain in low-income, multiply disadvantaged populations. She also consults with health care settings to help train behavioral health providers to implement cognitive-behavioral therapy for pain management.