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Project 3: When and why does exposure therapy fail in patients with chronic back pain?

Dr. Julia Glombiewski

PhD Student: Karoline Körfer

This project aims to investigate the role of expectation violation in the context of psychological treatment (e.g., exposure treatment) of chronic pain. Although exposure therapy is effective for treating chronic pain conditions, especially in highly fear-avoidant patients, an appreciable number of chronic pain patients do not benefit. Thus, further understanding of the mechanisms of action seems promising to enhance treatment success and to improve therapeutic instructions. Expectation violation will be investigated as a potential strategy to enhance treatment success of exposure-based treatments. Moreover, potential conditioning peculiarities in individuals suffering from chronic pain will be examined. Mechanisms that might impede the expectation change in light of successful expectation violation will be studied.

Publications

Kube, T., Rief, W., Vivell, M. B., Schäfer, N. L., Vermillion, T., Körfer, K., & Glombiewski, J. A. (2020). Deceptive and nondeceptive placebos to reduce pain: An experimental study in healthy individuals. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 36(2), 68-79.

Kube, T., Schwarting, R., Rozenkrantz, L., Glombiewski, J. A., & Rief, W. (2020). Distorted Cognitive Processes in Major Depression: A Predictive Processing Perspective. Biological Psychiatry 87, 388-389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.07.017

Schemer, L., Rief, W., & Glombiewski, J. A. (2020). Treatment expectations towards different pain management approaches: Two perspectives. Journal of Pain Research, 13, 1725-1736.

Kube, T., Rief, W., Gollwitzer, M., Gärtner, T., & Glombiewski, J. A. (2019). Why dysfunctional expectations in depression persist – Results from two experimental studies investigating cognitive immunization. Psychological Medicine, 49, 1532-1544. 

Schemer, L., Körfer, K., & Glombiewski, J. A. (2019). Evaluation of exposure instructions to pain: Should therapist focus on fear reduction or expectation violation? Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1-12.

Kube, T., Rief, W., Gollwitzer, M., & Glombiewski, J. A. (2018). Introducing an EXperimental Paradigm to investigate Expectation Change (EXPEC). Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 59, 92-99. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2017.12.002

Kube, T., Rief, W., & Glombiewski, J.A. (2017). On the Maintenance of Expectations in Major Depression – Investigating a Neglected Phenomenon. Frontiers in Psychology 8(9), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00009 

Rief, W., & Glombiewski, J. A. (2017). The role of expectations in mental disorders and their treatment. World Psychiatry, 16(2), 210-211. doi: 10.1002/wps.20427

Rief, W., Glombiewski, J. A., Gollwitzer, M., Schubö, A., Schwarting, R., & Thorwart, A. (2015). Expectancies as core features of mental disorders. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 28(5), 378-385.

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