Dr Rachel Elphinston
McElwain Building (24A)
Level 2, Room 227
Level 2, Room 227
Researcher biography
Dr Rachel Elphinston is a Senior Research Fellow at Recover Injury Research Centre at The University of Queensland and clinical psychologist with more than a decade of industry-related experience. Her research interests focus on the psychological risk factors for pain and disability following injury, integrated pain treatments, pain medicines use, and the influence of social media. She has designed and implemented research projects examining factors associated with perceived injustice following road traffic crashes, psychosocial factors associated with prescription opioid use in individuals with chronic pain, the effectiveness of brief psychological risk-targeted telehealth interventions, and the role of social media messaging in policy implementation following the up-scheduling of codeine. She has received industry funding to co-design, develop and test feasibility of a psychological brief intervention to reduce risk of prescription opioid-related harm in patients with chronic pain. Dr Elphinston has a current appointment with Addiction and Mental Health Services in Metro South Health and has experience in working in multidisciplinary clinical and research teams to translate research into practice and design and implement new models of care. She also has experience in delivering education and training to a wide range of health professionals and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Book Chapter
Sterling, Michele and Elphinston, Rachel A. (2024). Consideration of Cognitive and Behavioral Influences on Physiotherapy Practice. Grieve's modern musculoskeletal physiotherapy. (pp. 296-302) edited by Deborah Falla, Jeremy Lewis, Christopher McCarthy, Chad E. Cook and Michele Sterling. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-7020-8089-0.00040-9
Journal Articles
Armfield, N. R., Farrell, S. F., Gabbe, B. J., Elphinston, R. A., Kosgallana, S., Connelly, L. B. and Sterling, M. (2025). Health related quality of life in the UK Biobank Experience of Pain follow-up study: a comparison with general population norms. American Journal of Epidemiology. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwaf113
Eather, Chloe-Emily, Sterling, Michele, Sullivan, Clair and Elphinston, Rachel A. (2025). Leveraging value-based health principles to improve translation and impact of digital psychological interventions for people with chronic pain. Pain, 166 (4), 755-758. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003441
Elphinston, Rachel A, Pager, Sue, Brown, Kelly, Sterling, Michele, Fatehi, Farhad, Gray, Paul, Hipper, Linda, Cahill, Lauren and Connor, Jason P. (2025). Co-designing a digital brief intervention to reduce the risk of prescription opioid–related harm among people with chronic noncancer pain: qualitative analysis of patient lived experiences. JMIR Formative Research, 9 e57208, e57208. doi: 10.2196/57208
Błachnio, Agata, Przepiórka, Aneta, Gorbaniuk, Oleg, Abreu, Ana Maria, Bendayan, Rebecca, Ben-Ezra, Menachem, Benvenuti, Martina, Durak, Mithat, Senol-Durak, Emre, Makita, Meiko, McNeill, Monika, Seidman, Gwendolyn, Wu, Anise M.S., Blanca, Maria J., Angeluci, Alan, Čuš Babić, Nenad, Brkljacic, Tihana, Ciobanu, Adela Magdalena, Ivanova, Ana, Giannakos, Michail N., Gorbaniuk, Julia, Holdoš, Juraj, Malik, Sadia, Mahmoud, Ali Bassam, Milanovic, Anita, Musil, Bojan, Pappas, Ilias O., Popa, Camelia, Pantic, Igor ... Mazzoni, Elvis (2024). Measurement invariance of the Facebook intrusion questionnaire across 25 countries. International Journal of Psychology, 59 (6), 1049-1063. doi: 10.1002/ijop.13227
Walker, Arlene, Nagarajan, Srivalli Vilapakkam, Orr, Poppy, Elphinston, Rachel, Dunne, Michael and McAllister, Lindy (2024). Allied health work readiness capabilities: a qualitative comparison of graduates, supervisors, and managers’ perspectives. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 38 (6), 1026-1034. doi: 10.1080/13561820.2024.2406476
Elphinston, Rachel A., Pager, Sue, Fatehi, Farhad, Sterling, Michele, Brown, Kelly, Gray, Paul, Hipper, Linda, Cahill, Lauren, Ziadni, Maisa, Worthy, Peter and Connor, Jason P. (2024). Applying patient and health professional preferences as part of co-designing a new digital brief intervention to reduce risk of prescription opioid harm: a qualitative analysis. JMIR Formative Research, 9 e57212, e57212. doi: 10.2196/57212
Farrell, Scott F., Armfield, Nigel R., Cabot, Peter J., Elphinston, Rachel A., Gray, Paul, Minhas, Gunjeet, Collyer, Martin R. and Sterling, Michele (2024). C-reactive protein (CRP) is associated with chronic pain independently of biopsychosocial factors. The Journal of Pain, 25 (2), 476-496. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2023.09.008
Błachnio, Agata, Przepiórka, Aneta, Cudo, Andrzej and Elphinston, Rachel A. (2024). Assessing problematic Facebook use: psychometric properties of the Polish version of Facebook Intrusion Questionnaire. European Review of Applied Psychology, 74 (1) 100939, 1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.erap.2023.100939
Armfield, Nigel, Elphinston, Rachel, Liimatainen, Jenna, Scotti Requena, Simone, Eather, Chloe-Emily, Edirippulige, Sisira, Ritchie, Carrie, Robins, Sarah and Sterling, Michele (2024). Development and use of mobile messaging for individuals with musculoskeletal pain conditions: a scoping review. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 12 e55625, e55625. doi: 10.2196/55625
Baranoff, John A., Clubb, Bryce, Coates, Jason M., Elphinston, Rachel A., Loveday, William and Connor, Jason P. (2023). The contribution of pain catastrophizing, depression and anxiety symptoms among patients with persistent pain and opioid misuse behaviours. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 47 (2), 342-347. doi: 10.1007/s10865-023-00452-4
Yates, Eloise, Buckley, Lisa, Sterling, Michele, Cruwys, Tegan, Ashton-James, Claire, Rankin, Renee and Elphinston, Rachel (2023). Interest in digital peer-delivered interventions and preferences to improve pain self-efficacy and reduce loneliness amongst patients with chronic pain: a mixed methods co-design study. JMIR Formative Research, 7 e41211, e41211. doi: 10.2196/41211
Eather, Chloe-Emily, Gullo, Matthew J. and Elphinston, Rachel A. (2023). Reward drive moderates the effect of depression-related cognitive mechanisms on risk of prescription opioid misuse among patients with chronic non-cancer pain. The Journal of Pain, 24 (4), 655-666. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2022.11.009
Buckley, Lisa, Sterling, Michele and Elphinston, Rachel A. (2023). Chronic pain experience through COVID-19: a comparison of reports prior and during the early stages of the pandemic. Pain, 164 (2), 435-442. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002724
Elphinston, Rachel A., Gullo, Matthew J. and Connor, Jason P. (2022). Validation of the Facebook Addiction Questionnaire. Personality and Individual Differences, 195 111619, 111619. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2022.111619
Fulton, Sarah, Janssen, Heidi, Salih, Salih, James, Alecia and Elphinston, Rachel A. (2022). Feasibility and acceptability of a mobile model of environmental enrichment for patients with mixed medical conditions receiving inpatient rehabilitation: a mixed methods study. BMJ Open, 12 (9) e061212, 1-10. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061212
Elphinston, Rachel A., Vaezipour, Atiyeh, Fowler, James A., Russell, Trevor G. and Sterling, Michele (2022). Psychological therapy using virtual reality for treatment of driving phobia: a systematic review. Disability and Rehabilitation, 45 (10), 1-13. doi: 10.1080/09638288.2022.2069293
Elphinston, Rachel A., Sullivan, Michael J. L., Sterling, Michele, Connor, Jason. P., Baranoff, John A., Tan, Dylan and Day, Melissa A. (2022). Pain medication beliefs mediate the relationship between pain catastrophizing and opioid prescription use in patients with chronic non-cancer pain. Journal of Pain, 23 (3), 379-389. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2021.08.009
Vaezipour, Atiyeh, Fowler, James A., Russell, Trevor, Sterling, Michele and Elphinston, Rachel A. (2021). Virtual reality-based psychological therapy for the treatment of driving anxiety. Journal of Transport and Health, 22 (s1) 101157, 5-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jth.2021.101157
Scotti Requena, Simone, Sterling, Michele, Elphinston, Rachel A., Ritchie, Carrie, Robins, Sarah and R Armfield, Nigel (2021). Development and use of mobile messaging for individuals with musculoskeletal pain conditions: a scoping review protocol. BMJ Open, 11 (7) 048964, e048964. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-048964
Elphinston, Rachel A., Connor, Jason P., de Andrade, Dominique, Hipper, Linda, Freeman, Chris, Chan, Gary and Sterling, Michele (2021). Impact of a policy change restricting access to codeine on prescription opioid-related emergency department presentations: an interrupted time series analysis. Pain, 162 (4), 1095-1103. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002115
Elphinston, Rachel A., Sterling, Michele, Leung, Janni, Gray, Paul D., Requena, Simone Scotti and Connor, Jason P (2021). Brief psychological interventions for reducing prescription opioid use, related harm and pain intensity in patients with chronic pain: a systematic review and assessment of patient interest. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 37 (4), 270-280. doi: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000908
Elphinston, Rachel A., Sterling, Michele, Kenardy, Justin, Smeets, Rob and Armfield, Nigel R. (2020). The mechanisms of effect of a physiotherapist-delivered integrated psychological and exercise intervention for acute whiplash-associated disorders: secondary mediation analysis of a randomized controlled trial. Pain Reports, 5 (5) e835, e835. doi: 10.1097/pr9.0000000000000835
Elphinston, Rachel A., Wyder, Marianne, De Andrade, Dominique, Nguyen, Kim-Huong, Gude, Alan and Hipper, Linda (2020). Impact of a new specialist alcohol and drug brief intervention service model integrated into the emergency department: An interrupted time series analysis. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 33 (1) 1742-6723.13582, 67-73. doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.13582
Fowler, James, Gullo, Matthew J. and Elphinston, Rachel A. (2020). Impulsivity traits and Facebook addiction in young people and the potential mediating role of coping styles. Personality and Individual Differences, 161 109965, 109965. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2020.109965
Elphinston, Rachel A., Requena, Simone Scotti, Angus, Daniel, de Andrade, Dominique, Freeman, Christopher R. and Day, Melissa A. (2019). The promotion of policy changes restricting access to codeine medicines on Twitter: what do national pain organizations say?. The Journal of Pain, 21 (7-8), 881-891. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2019.12.001
de Andrade, Dominique, Elphinston, Rachel A., Quinn, Catherine, Allan, Julaine and Hides, Leanne (2019). The effectiveness of residential treatment services for individuals with substance use disorders: a systematic review. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 201, 227-235. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.03.031
O'Donovan, Julie, Russell, Karen, Kuipers, Pim, Siskind, Dan and Elphinston, Rachel A. (2019). A place to call home: hearing the perspectives of people living with homelessness and mental illness through service evaluation. Community Mental Health Journal, 55 (7), 1218-1225. doi: 10.1007/s10597-019-00406-8
Wan, Alan K., Rainville, Pierre, O'Leary, Shaun, Elphinston, Rachel A., Sterling, Michele, Larivière, Christian and Sullivan, Michael J. L. (2018). Validation of an index of Sensitivity to Movement-Evoked Pain in patients with whiplash injuries. Pain Reports, 3 (4) e661, e661. doi: 10.1097/PR9.0000000000000661
Elphinston, Rachel A., Thibault, Pascal, Carriere, Junie S., Rainville, Pierre and Sullivan, Michael J. (2018). Cross-sectional and prospective correlates of recovery expectancies in the rehabilitation of whiplash injury. Clinical Journal of Pain, 34 (4) 0542, 306-312. doi: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000542
Ward, Elizabeth C., Elphinston, Rachel A., Wall, Laurelie R., Schwarz, Maria and Gordon, Gail E. (2018). Research engagement and activity in an allied health workforce insights into departmental and organisational strategies. Journal of Allied Health, 47 (4), 265-271.
Elphinston, Rachel A. and Pager, Susan (2015). Untapped potential: psychologists leading research in clinical practice. Australian Psychologist, 50 (2), 115-121. doi: 10.1111/ap.12102
Elphinston, Rachel A., Feeney, Judith A., Noller, Patricia, Connor, Jason P. and Fitzgerald, Jennifer (2013). Romantic jealousy and relationship satisfaction: the costs of rumination. Western Journal of Communication, 77 (3), 293-304. doi: 10.1080/10570314.2013.770161
Elphinston, Rachel A., Feeney, Judith A. and Noller, Patricia (2011). Measuring romantic jealousy: Validation of the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale in Australian samples. Australian Journal of Psychology, 63 (4), 243-251. doi: 10.1111/j.1742-9536.2011.00026.x
Elphinston, Rachel A. and Noller, Patricia (2011). Time to face it! Facebook intrusion and the implications for romantic jealousy and relation. CyberPsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14 (11), 631-635. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2010.0318
Conference Papers
Nikles, Jane, Johnston, Amy, van Driel, Mieke, Perez, Siegfried, Ritchie, Carrie, Elphinston, Rachel and Sterling, Michele (2022). A systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions to improve opioid prescribing in ED for acute non-admitted musculoskeletal pain. Recover Injury Research Centre, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 6 October 2022.
Nikles, J., Johnston, A., van Driel, M., Perez, S., Ritchie, C., Elphinston, R. and Sterling, M. (2022). A systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions to improve opioid prescribing in ED for acute non-admitted musculoskeletal pain. Recover Injury Research Centre Conference, Brisbane, Australia, October 2022.
Hides, Leanne, Elphinston, Rachel and Quinn, Catherine (2018). Workshop: QuikFix: A new risk-targeted brief intervention for young people at risk of substance-related harm. Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs (APSAD), Auckland, New Zealand, 4-7 November, 2018. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
De Andrade, Dominique, Hides, Leanne, Quinn, Catherine, Elphinston, Rachel and Allan, Julaine (2018). The effectiveness of residential treatment services for individuals with substance use disorders: A review of recent evidence. Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs (APSAD), Auckland, New Zealand, 4-7 November 2018. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. doi: 10.1111/dar.12862
Quinn, Catherine, Hides, Leanne, De Andrade, Dominique, Elphinston, Rachel, Wilson, Megan and Kavanagh, David (2018). Impact of brief psychoeducational interventions for reducing alcohol use and related harm in school leavers. Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs (APSAD), Auckland, New Zealand, 4-7 November, 2018. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
Robinson, A. and Elphinston, R. A. (2015). The customer’s always right: first insights into recruitment and selection practices across allied health. APS 11th Industrial and Organisational Psychology Conference, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 2-7 July 2015.
Elphinston, R. A. and Feeney, J. A. (2006). An attachment perspective on romantic jealousy: examining person and situational determinants and their interactive effects.. Conference of the Interpersonal Association for Relationships, Crete, Greece, 6-10 July 2006.
Elphinston, R. A. and Feeney, J. A. (2005). The dark side of romantic relationships: The role of person and situational variable in the experience and expression of jealousy. the 40th Annual Conference of the Australian Psychological Society, Crown Promenade Hotel, Melbourne, Victoria, 28 September - 2 October 2005. Basingstoke, UK: Taylor & Francis.
Thesis
Elphinston, Rachel (2010). Understanding jealousy in romantic relationships: links to attachment, Facebook involvement, and relational outcomes. PhD Thesis, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland.
Preprints
Elphinston, Rachel A., Pager, Sue, Brown, Kelly, Sterling, Michele, Fatehi, Farhad, Gray, Paul, Hipper, Linda, Cahill, Linda and Connor, Jason P. (2022). The first step in co-design of a digital brief intervention to reduce prescription opioid related harm, informed by patient lived experiences: a qualitative analysis.
Elphinston, Rachel A., Pager, Sue, Fatehi, Farhad, Sterling, Michele, Brown, Kelly, Gray, Paul, Hipper, Linda, Cahill, Lauren , Ziadni, Maisa, Worthy, Peter and Connor, Jason P. (2022). Applying patient and health professional preferences as part of co-designing a new digital brief intervention to reduce prescription opioid harm.