Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Aug:64:102038.
doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102038. Epub 2025 Mar 13.

Optimizing psychological treatments for pediatric chronic pain to enhance outcomes, availability, and accessibility

Melissa Pielech  1 , Emily A Beckmann  2 , Hailey Dorsainvil  3
Affiliations
Review

Optimizing psychological treatments for pediatric chronic pain to enhance outcomes, availability, and accessibility

Melissa Pielech et al. Curr Opin Psychol. 2025 Aug.

Abstract

Although the evidence-base for psychological treatments for pediatric chronic pain (CP) is promising, the rigor and quality of existing studies remains variable and psychological treatments for pediatric CP are often inaccessible to youth that may benefit. Persistence in the rates and devastating impact of chronic pain for children and adolescents suggests a need to improve both the quality and availability of psychological treatments for pediatric CP. This brief review aims to provide an overview of the primary developmentally tailored, evidence-based, psychological treatments for pediatric CP (e.g. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). We also highlight two requisite directions for future research and program development efforts on psychological treatments for pediatric CP: 1) optimizing and tailoring treatments for real world treatment settings in partnership with end users (i.e. youth, providers) and 2) addressing barriers at multiple levels which impact both the availability and accessibility of evidence-based psychological treatments for CP.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Melissa Pielech reports financial support was provided by National Institute on Drug Abuse. The co-authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Wicksell RK, Kanstrup M, Kemani MK, Holmström L, Olsson GL. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for children and adolescents with physical health concerns. Current Opinion in Psychology. 2015;2:1–5. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2014.12.029 - DOI

    1. Chambers CT, Dol J, Tutelman PR, et al. The prevalence of chronic pain in children and adolescents: a systematic review update and meta-analysis. Pain. 2024;165(10):2215–2234. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003267

      * A systematic review and meta-analysis that provides updated prevalence rates of pediatric chronic pain.

    1. Forgeron PA, King S, Stinson JN, McGrath PJ, MacDonald AJ, Chambers CT. Social functioning and peer relationships in children and adolescents with chronic pain: A systematic review. Pain Res Manag. 2010;15(1):27–41. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Groenewald CB, Law EF, Fisher E, Beals-Erickson SE, Palermo TM. Associations Between Adolescent Chronic Pain and Prescription Opioid Misuse in Adulthood. J Pain. 2019;20(1):28–37. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2018.07.007 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Groenewald CB, Tham SW, Palermo TM. Impaired school functioning in children with chronic pain: A national perspective. Clin J Pain. 2020;36(9):693–699. doi: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000850 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources