Francis Joseph Keefe

Throughout my research career,, I have had very broad ranging interests in how people cope with and adjust to pain, particularly persistent pain.  Understanding coping and adaptation helps us better understand the very significant variations in pain, disability, and suffering in people with similar levels of injury and disease.  It also can help guide the development of interventions to enhance coping efforts.  
My current research interests center on testing the efficacy and effectiveness of  behavioral interventions designed to enhance how people deal with pain (e.g. coping skills training, cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness meditation, acceptance and commitment therapy, yoga-based protocols, weight management, cbt for insomnia).  I actively collaborate with researchers conducting NIH-funded studies being conducted here at Duke and elsewhere.  Many of those studies are testing brief interventions and novel strategies for delivering training in pain copinng.