Katz, Joel D.Azam, Muhammad Abid2021-11-152021-11-152021-042021-11-15http://hdl.handle.net/10315/38653Chronic and post-surgical pain conditions are highly prevalent and often treated sub-optimally. Clinical pain is understood to originate from inflammatory and neurological dysfunction, and research literature has amassed to shed light on stress-related sympathetic nervous system hyper-activity as a critical component of the etiology and maintenance of pain. Conversely, the role of the parasympathetic vagus nerve has been less studied, and appears to hold promise as a therapeutic pathway that can be leveraged through administration of behavioral medicine treatments. The present dissertation employed heart rate variability as a measure of vagal heart rate modulation in three randomized, controlled trials to investigate responses to mindfulness meditation and clinical hypnosis, in individuals with chronic and post-surgical pain. The overall pattern of results indicate that both mindfulness and hypnosis-based treatments have beneficial effects on vagal heart rate modulation in individuals with chronic and post-surgical pain, respectively. Future research is needed to determine the extent to which these effects may translate to clinical pain outcomes.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.Health care managementElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2021-11-15Chronic painPain managementMindfulness meditationClinical hypnosisAnxietyDepressionHeart rate variabilityVagus nerveParasympathetic nervous systemSympathetic nervous systemPsychophysiologySmartphone applicationDigital healtheHealthPost-surgical painStress managementAutonomic nervous systemBiomarkerBiofeedbackPain disorderBehavioral medicineAlternative medicineComplimentary medicineBiopsychosocialHealth psychologyClinical psychology