Beth Darnall

Beth Darnall

Pain management specialist, Pain psychologist


Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine (Adult Pain) and, by courtesy, of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (General Psychiatry & Psychology (Adult))

View Professional Summary »


Additional Languages Spoken:
Portuguese

Biography


Beth Darnall, PhD is Director of the Stanford Pain Relief Innovations Lab. She leads NIH and PCORI-funded clinical trials that broadly investigate behavioral medicine for acute and chronic pain, including $19M in research funding from the Patient Centered Research Outcomes Institute (PCORI). She serves as faculty mentor to junior investigators who are Stanford Pain NIDA T-32 post-doctoral research fellows, NIDA K23 awardees, and through the Stanford CTSA. In 2021 she received a K24 research and mentoring award from NIDA.

Her primary interests are developing and investigating novel pain treatments that are scalable, effective, and low burden. She is creator of "Empowered Relief", a single-session evidence based pain management intervention, and principal investigator for a 6-site $11M national randomized comparative effectiveness trial of online "Empowered Relief" vs. online 8-session cognitive behavioral therapy in diverse patients and pain conditions in the U.S. (funded by PCORI; 2022-2027). She and her team provide international clinician certification workshops for "Empowered Relief" (https://empoweredrelief.stanford.edu/). "Empowered Relief" is delivered in 16 countries, 7 languages, and is the subject of international research. In 2021, results for an NIH-funded randomized trial of "Empowered Relief" published in JAMA Network Open. Also in 2021 a second randomized trial of online-received "Empowered Relief" showed efficacy in mixed-etiology chronic pain 3 months after treatment (Ziadni et al). Digital analgesic innovations include on-demand, skills-based, self-regulatory treatment for perioperative patients (“My Surgical Success”, showing extended pain relief 3 months after surgery (Ziadni et al, 2022), and virtual reality for acute and chronic pain (she is chief science advisor at AppliedVR). The broad goal of this collective line of research is to dismantle barriers to effective behavioral medicine for pain and health.

She leads the PCORI-funded EMPOWER study, a 7-site (5-state) pragmatic randomized controlled clinical trial that is investigating how to best help physicians and patients successfully, safely, and voluntarily reduce long term opioid use and chronic pain using patient-centered methods. EMPOWER is a 3-arm RCT comparative effectiveness trial of two evidence-based behavioral treatments, cognitive behavioral therapy for pain and chronic pain self-management, applied within the context of patient-centered opioid tapering (N=1365). This research builds on the team's first report on "Patient-Centered Prescription Opioid Tapering in Community Outpatients with Chronic Pain" (Darnall et al, JAMA Int Med, 2018). Learn more about the EMPOWER study at https://empower.stanford.edu/

Darnall three times briefed the U.S. Congress on the opioid and pain crises, and provided invited testimony to the FDA on iatrogenic harms associated with opioid tapering, and in 2022 advised the Federation of State Medical Boards. In 2020 she joined the NIH Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee as a scientific member. From 2020-2021 she served as a scientific member of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Opioid Workgroup of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (BSC/NCIPC).

Her work has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, NPR Radio, BBC Radio, and Nature. In 2018 she spoke on the psychology of pain relief at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Professional Summary


Education & Certifications
  • PhD Training: University of Colorado at Boulder (2002) CO
  • Fellowship: The Johns Hopkins University (2004) MD
  • Internship: Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System (2002) AZ

Honors & Awards
  • Digital Behavioral Medicine for Pain Relief and Opioid Reduction (invited speaker), NIH 15th Annual Pain Research Consortium Symposium (2020)
  • FDA Network of Experts in Digital Health Technologies, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2020)
  • Non-pharmacologic Treatment for Chronic Pain (invited speaker), National Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (2018)
  • Opioid Tapering Iatrogenic Risks (invited testimony), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2019)
  • Pain and Opioid Crisis in America (invited speaker), U.S. Congressional Briefing (2018)
  • Presidential Commendation, Distinguished Service Award, American Academy of Pain Medicine (2022)

Memberships
  • Academy of Research Mentors in Anesthesiology (ARMA), Invited member, Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) (2022 - Present)
  • Medical Advisory Board, Facial Pain Association (2022 - Present)
  • Scientific Advisory Board, National Pain Advocacy Center (2021 - 2022)
  • Co-Chair, 2022 annual conference, American Academy of Pain Medicine (2021 - Present)
  • Board of Directors, American Academy of Pain Medicine (2021 - Present)
  • Scientific Member, NIH Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC), National Institutes of Health (2020 - Present)
  • CDC Opioid Workgroup Member, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2020 - 2021)
  • Network of Experts in Digital Health Technologies, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2020 - Present)
  • Editorial Board, MedPage Today (2020 - Present)
  • Board of Directors, Institute for Brain Potential (2020 - Present)
  • Chief Scientific Advisor, AppliedVR (2019 - Present)
  • Co-Chair, Behavioral Medicine Committee, American Academy of Pain Medicine (2019 - Present)
  • Opioid Guideline Task Force, American Academy of Pain Medicine (2019 - Present)
  • Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (ad hoc member), National Institutes of Health (2019 - 2019)
  • Opioid Advisory Committee, American Academy of Pain Medicine (2017 - Present)
  • Scientific Review and Guidelines Committee, American Academy of Pain Medicine (2017 - Present)
  • ACOEM Committee Member and Co-Author, ACOEM Chronic Pain National Guideline (2016 - 2017)
  • Education Initiatives Working Group, International Association for the Study of Pain (2016 - 2018)
  • APS Clinical Resources and Guidelines Committee, American Pain Society (2015 - 2018)
  • Committee on the Principles of Analgesic Use in the Treatment of Chronic Pain and Cancer Pain, American Pain Society (2014 - 2016)
  • President, Pain Society of Oregon (2012 - 2012)

Administrative Appointments
  • CDC Opioid Workgroup (BSC/NCIPC), Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (BSC/NCIPC) (2020 - 2021)
  • Co-Chair, Acute Pain Task Force, Stanford Hospital (2019 - Present)
  • NIH Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC). Scientific member., National Institutes of Health (2020 - 2022)

Publications

Specializing In

Practice Locations


Pain Management Center in Redwood City Redwood City, CA
Redwood City, CA

450 Broadway Street, Pavilion A, 1st Floor

Redwood City , CA 94063

(650) 723-6238

Make An Appointment More Clinic Information » Getting Here »

Referring Physicians

LOG INTO MEDLINK