Intro: summary of article and why it matters
This month’s research paper focuses on looking at what people believe about back pain (BP), and how those beliefs have been influenced. The reality is “common knowledge” or community beliefs about BP, don’t jive with current research. This reality leads to more suffering, pain, and poorer outcomes for the person experiencing it.
We know that when a person believes they can’t function well with pain, outcomes are worse. (self-efficacy).
We know that a person who avoids movement due to fear and doesn’t believe that they can get better leads to worse outcomes (fear avoidance)
We know negative thoughts about the causes or consequences of BP (catastrophisation), psychological distress (anxiety, depression, and stress), and reliance on passive coping strategies have all been found to be independently associated with poor outcomes including delayed return to work, activity limitation, and pain persistence.
The Takeaway Points about Back Pain from the paper
Role of Psychosocial Factors in Back Pain:
- Psychosocial factors play a crucial role in the development of BP and subsequent recovery.
- Factors such as pain self-efficacy, fear avoidance, catastrophization, psychological distress (anxiety, depression, stress), and reliance on passive coping strategies are associated with poor outcomes, including delayed return to work, activity limitation, and pain persistence.
Inter-Related Psychosocial Factors:
- Many psychosocial factors are interrelated and overlapping. For example, beliefs about the cause of BP and expected outcomes can contribute to pain-related emotional distress.
- Key constructs influencing outcomes include self-efficacy, fear, expectation, and psychological distress, all of which can be linked to the perceived threat associated with back pain.
Relevance Throughout Back Pain Stages:
- Psychosocial factors are relevant at all stages of back pain, influencing behavior, recovery, and the perceptual experience of pain itself.
- Neurophysiological research highlights the influence of central nervous system processes on pain perception, where context, cognition, and mood alter the pain experienced for a given nociceptive input or level of tissue stimulation. (your beliefs influence your pain!)
Influence on Pain Perception and Risk of Development:
- Psychosocial factors associated with poor recovery are not exclusive to individuals with existing back pain; they may also increase the risk of someone developing BP.
Clinician’s Role in Addressing Psychosocial Factors:
- Clinicians can positively influence psychosocial factors by understanding the underlying beliefs and how these beliefs are formed.
- Beliefs about BP have been explored through surveys, prospective studies, intervention studies, and qualitative interviews among the general population, individuals with back pain, and clinicians.
Summary
When we lack hope, accurate information, and don’t believe we can get better or that we are fragile, broken, and beyond repair. our ability to recover from pain is hampered. We are taught these things by clinicians, friends, and society. By getting accurate information about pain, realizing we are not fragile, that we can get better – we stand a much better chance of doing just that.
Would you like to learn more about accurate information about pain so that you can get better too? Click. the picture below and get access to my free course, “Chronic Pain Explained”. You won’t’ regret it.
Further Reading
10 Things to Know About Back Pain
