Pain Intensity as a Lagging Indicator of Patient Improvement: Longitudinal Relationships with Sleep, Psychiatric Distress, and Function in Multidisciplinary Care

Traditional biomedical treatment models for chronic pain have conceptualized pain intensity as the primary target for intervention based on the belief that pain arises primarily from a specific medical pathology that must be addressed as a first step before co-occurring problems such as insomnia, depression and functional impairment may improve. That reduction of pain intensity must precede improvement in these other problems is a common belief for both clinicians13 and patients.2, 6, 24, 27 However, there is robust evidence that pain reduction may be accompanied or even preceded by changes in sleep disturbance, function, or affective distress.
Source: The Journal of Pain - Category: Materials Science Authors: Tags: Original Reports Source Type: research