Table 1.

Overview of three psychosocial interventions used in managing pain in older adults

Intervention	Target	Treatment components	Research findings
CBT	Alter pain-relevant thoughts, emotions, and behaviours	Patients attend 6–12 sessions to learn and practice pain-management skills, including relaxation, distraction, activity pacing, cognitive restructuring, problem solving	Good evidence for efficacy
Emotional disclosure	The ability to experience, identify, express, and process negative emotions	Patients write or speak for several 15–20 min sessions about their deepest thoughts and feelings related to a stressful experience	Mixed evidence; efficacy is linked to patient pre-treatment characteristics
Mind–body	Cultivate awareness and acceptance of physical and emotional experiences	Patients attend 6–8 sessions to learn and practice mindfulness meditation, yoga, or both with group discussion of experiences	Few studies, particularly among older adults; preliminary research is promising