Director of Pain Management, Scripps Center For Integrative Medicine
Past President, Academy of Integrative Pain Management
Assistant Clinical Professor, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine
Robert Alan Bonakdar, MD, FAAFP, FACN, is a 2018 Mayday Pain Fellow and the Director of Pain Management at the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine since 2002 and a member of the systemwide Opioid Stewardship Committee. He is the co-editor of the Oxford University Press textbook of Integrative Pain Management.
Most recently, Dr. Bonakdar has presented to the congressionally mandated Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force as well as at The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on non-pharmacological approaches to pain.
Prior to medical school, Dr. Bonakdar received a Richter International Fellowship where he studied Eastern healthcare approaches in Southeast Asia. After completing his medical training, he completed a fellowship at the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine / Scripps Clinic with a focus on integrative pain management. Additionally, he is certified in headache management by the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties and board certified in Integrative Medicine by the American Board of Integrative Medicine.
He is the co-editor of the textbook of Integrative Pain Management (Oxford University Press 2016), the author of the H.E.R.B.A.L. Guide: Dietary Supplement Resources for the Clinician. (Lippincott, 2010) and contributing author for Integrative Medicine 4th Edition (ed. David Rakel MD) (Elsevier, 2017).
Dr. Bonakdar has a special interest in nutrition and the is founder and course director of the Scripps CME conference Natural Supplements: An Evidence-Based Update. He is also a fellow of the American College of Nutrition and recipient of the 2020 Mark Bieber Award.
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Recent Sessions at Neurovations Events
2018 Kaua’i Pain Conference
- Nutritional Pain Management for Optimizing the Management of Headache and Neuropathy
- The ACP Chronic LBP Guidelines: What to Know & How to Incorporate Them
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Select Publications
- Bonakdar, R. A., & Sukiennik, A. W. (Eds.). (2016). Integrative pain management. Oxford University Press.
- Bonakdar, R. A., Christo, P. J., & Clark, M. R. (2013). Obesity related pain: Time for a new approach that targets systemic inflammation. J Fam Pract, 62, 22-28.
- Tick, H., Nielsen, A., Pelletier, K. R., Bonakdar, R., Simmons, S., Glick, R., … & Zador, V. (2018). Evidence-based nonpharmacologic strategies for comprehensive pain care: The Consortium Pain Task Force white paper. Explore, 14(3), 177-211.
- Gardiner, P., Filippelli, A. C., Lebensohn, P., & Bonakdar, R. (2015). The incorporation of stress management programming into family medicine residencies-results of a national survey of residency directors: a CERA study.
- Tick, H., Nielsen, A., Pelletier, K. R., Bonakdar, R., Simmons, S., Glick, R., … & Zador, V. (2018). Evidence-based nonpharmacologic strategies for comprehensive pain care: the consortium pain task force white paper. Explore, 14(3), 177-211.
- Bonakdar, R. A. (2017). Integrative pain management. Medical Clinics, 101(5), 987-1004.
- Bonakdar, R. A., & Guarneri, E. (2005). Coenzyme Q10. American Family Physician, 72(6), 1065-1070.
- Bonakdar, R., Palanker, D., & Sweeney, M. M. (2019). Analysis of state insurance coverage for nonpharmacologic treatment of low back pain as recommended by the American College of Physicians Guidelines. Global Advances in Health and Medicine, 8, 2164956119855629.
- Bonakdar, R. A., Christo, P. J., & Clark, M. R. (2013). Obesity related pain; time for a new approach that targets systemic inflammation. Journal Family Practice, 62(9), 22-28.