Lynn DeBar, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and behavioral health researcher. Her work in recent years has focused primarily on the health care service needs of patients with chronic pain and opioid use, particularly those with complicating comorbid conditions. She conducts large-scale pragmatic trials of pain and opioid related care that evaluate behavioral, complementary and integrative health, and pharmacologic treatment approaches. She also conducts epidemiological studies examining the impact of health care policies on patient receipt of pain-related behavioral health and complementary and integrative health services. Dr. DeBar is particularly interested in the provision of care within primary care settings and works closely with physicians at Kaiser Permanente and other health care systems to ensure that her research findings make their way into clinical practice, and to identify real-world clinical practices that have the potential to improve service delivery through large-scale adoption of behavioral and lifestyle interventions.
Dr. DeBar serves on the Multi-Disciplinary Working Group that guides the National Institutes of Health’s Helping to End Addition Long-term (HEAL) Initiative. She formerly served on the National Advisory Council for the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. She has been the principal investigator of projects funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.
Dr. DeBar holds a PhD in clinical and community psychology with an emphasis on health psychology from Yale University. Dr. DeBar also received an MPH from Oregon Health & Sciences University, where she focused on epidemiology and biostatistics. From 2002 to 2017, Dr. DeBar was an investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon. Between 2017 and 2022 her primary appointment was as a Senior Investigator at the KP Washington Health Research Institute. She returned to KPCHR as a Distinguished Investigator in 2023. She has ongoing studies in both settings and plans to continue bridging the two KP research units. She is an affiliate professor in the University of Washington School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
Selected Current Studies
- Tailored Non-Pharmacotherapy Services for Chronic Pain: Testing Scalable and Pragmatic Approaches – RESOLVE (NIA)
- Pragmatic Trial of Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults – BackInAction (NCCIH)
- Patient Centered Team-Based Primary Care to Treat Opioid Use Disorder, Depression, and Other Conditions – MICARE (NIMH)
- A Naturalistic Experiment Evaluating the Impact of Medicaid Policy Changes on Patient Centered Outcomes Among Patients with Chronic Back Pain- BackOnTrack (PCORI)
Recent Publications
- MA, Kroenke K, Bobb JF, Schoenbaum M, Thompson EE, Justice M, Zatzick D, Hamilton LK, McMullen CK, Hallgren KA, Benes LL, Forman DP, Caldeiro RM, Brown RP, Campbell NL, Anderson ML, Son S, Haggstrom DA, Whiteside L, Schleyer TKL, Bradley KA. A patient-centered nurse-supported primary care-based collaborative care program to treat opioid use disorder and depression: Design and protocol for the MI-CARE randomized controlled trial. Contemp Clin Trials. 2023 Apr;127:107124. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2023.107124. Epub 2023 Feb 18. PMID: 36804450
- DeBar LL, Justice M, Avins AL, Cook A, Eng CM, Herman PM, Hsu C, Nielsen A, Pressman A, Stone KL, Teets RY, Wellman R. Acupuncture for chronic low back pain in older adults: Design and protocol for the BackInAction pragmatic clinical trial. Contemp Clin Trials. 2023 May;128:107166. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2023.107166. Epub 2023 Mar 27. PMID: 36990274
- Mayhew M, Balderson BH, Cook AJ, Dickerson JF, Elder CR, Firemark AJ, Haller IV, Justice M, Keefe FJ, McMullen CK, O'Keeffe-Rosetti MC, Owen-Smith AA, Rini C, Schneider JL, Von Korff M, Wandner LD, DeBar LL. Comparing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of remote (telehealth and online) cognitive behavioral therapy-based treatments for high-impact chronic pain relative to usual care: study protocol for the RESOLVE multisite randomized control trial. 2023 Mar 16;24(1):196. doi: 10.1186/s13063-023-07165-8. PMID: 36927459 PMCID: PMC10018633
- DeBar L, Mayhew M, Benes L, Bonifay A, Deyo RA, Elder CR, Keefe FJ, Leo MC, McMullen C, Owen-Smith A, Smith DH, Trinacty CM, Vollmer WM. A Primary Care-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Intervention for Long-Term Opioid Users With Chronic Pain : A Randomized Pragmatic Trial. Ann Intern Med. 2022 Jan;175(1):46-55. doi: 10.7326/M21-1436. Epub 2021 Nov 2. PMID: 34724405 PMCID: PMC9802183
- Smith DH, O'Keeffe-Rosetti M, Leo MC, Mayhew M, Benes L, Bonifay A, Deyo RA, Elder CR, Keefe FJ, McMullen C, Owen-Smith A, Trinacty CM, Vollmer WM, DeBar L. Economic Evaluation: A Randomized Pragmatic Trial of a Primary Care-based Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Adults Receiving Long-term Opioids for Chronic Pain. Med Care. 2022 Jun 1;60(6):423-431. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000001713. Epub 2022 Mar 30. PMID: 35352703
- Muench J, Hoopes M, Mayhew M, Pisciotta M, Shortreed SM, Livingston CJ, Von Korff M, DeBar LL. Reduction of Long-Term Opioid Prescribing for Back Pain in Community Health Centers After a Medicaid Policy Change. J Am Board Fam Med. 2022 Mar-Apr;35(2):352-369. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2022.02.210306. PMID: 35379722 PMCID: PMC10464932
- Simon GE, Shortreed SM, DeBar LL. Zelen design clinical trials: why, when, and how. 2021 Aug 17;22(1):541. doi: 10.1186/s13063-021-05517-w. PMID: 34404466 PMCID: PMC8371763
- Von Korff M, DeBar LL, Krebs EE, Kerns RD, Deyo RA, Keefe FJ. Graded chronic pain scale revised: mild, bothersome, and high-impact chronic pain. 2020 Mar;161(3):651-661. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001758. PMID: 31764390 PMCID: PMC7097879
- Eaves ER, Hsu CW, DeBar LL, Livingston CJ, Ocker LE, McDonald SJ, Dillon-Sumner L, Ritenbaugh C. Whole Systems Within Whole Systems: The Oregon Health Plan's Expansion of Services for Back and Neck Pain. J Altern Complement Med. 2019 Mar;25(S1):S61-S68. doi: 10.1089/acm.2018.0431.PMID: 30870022
- Dahlhamer J, Lucas J, Zelaya C, Nahin R, Mackey S, DeBar L, Kerns R, Von Korff M, Porter L, Helmick C. Prevalence of Chronic Pain and High-Impact Chronic Pain Among Adults - United States, 2016. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2018 Sep 14;67(36):1001-1006. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6736a2. PMID: 30212442 PMCID: PMC6146950