NCCIH Talks Deal with Military Populations

Dr. Karen Seal

NCCIH is sponsoring several events discussing research on mind and body therapies to help active-duty military personnel, veterans and their families with health issues such as chronic pain and anxiety.  

On Monday, Apr. 10, at 10 a.m., Dr. Karen Seal will present in Lipsett Amphitheater, Bldg. 10, on “Pain and Opioid Management in Veterans: Evidence, Lessons Learned and Future Directions in the Use of Collaborative and Integrated Care Approaches.” Seal has developed a novel, primary care-based, collaborative approach to improve pain, opioid safety and use of nondrug strategies to manage chronic pain in veterans. Its components include shared decision-making, SMART goal planning and a multimodal pain care plan that aligns with a patient’s personal values and goals. 

Seal is a professor in the departments of medicine and psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and director of the integrated pain team and the integrated care clinic for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at San Francisco VA Medical Center. Her lecture can be viewed on NCCIH’s Facebook page along with a Q&A session at 2 p.m. that day (facebook.com/nih.nccih) or at videocast.nih.gov. 

Drs. Eric Schoomaker and Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier, both of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, will be featured in a Facebook Live Chat on Tuesday, Apr. 25, at 1 p.m. They will discuss mind and body approaches for pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and insomnia in military personnel and their families. 

Schoomaker, a former U.S. Army lieutenant general, served as surgeon general of the U.S. Army and commanding general. Currently he is professor and vice-chair for leadership, centers and programs at USUHS, where Buckenmaier is professor, program director and principal investigator at the Defense and Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management.