Bruce Naliboff, PhD

Dr. Naliboff received his PhD in clinical psychology from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and interned at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. During his long tenure at UCLA and the VA, he has served as senior psychologist in the UCLA and VA Pain Management Programs as well as a VA career scientist. Dr. Naliboff's research has focused on psychosocial and brain mechanisms of stress and chronic pain with an emphasis on chronic visceral pain disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). He has led critical studies into the perceptual and cognitive aspects of chronic pain states including the role of negative and positive emotions in modulating pain symptoms and impact. He is also a leader in the development and evaluation of non-pharmacological therapies for both visceral and somatic pain, and studied the clinical use of opioid medications. Dr. Naliboff has over 200 scientific publications on these topics, has had continuous funding from the NIH and VA, and he has served as a consulting editor for numerous scientific publications in psychology and medicine and on national and international committees as a grant reviewer and program consultant.