Pain science has leaned on a familiar aphorism: Nociception is neither necessary nor sufficient for pain. The phrase typically appears in textbooks, lectures, and research papers, often used to explain why pain can exist without clear tissue damage. But according to pain researchers Asaf Weisman, Dr. Milton Cohen, and Dr.
For decades, fear-avoidance beliefs have played a central role in how clinicians and researchers understand chronic pain. When pain is interpreted as a sign of harm, people may avoid movement or activity, leading to physical deconditioning, emotional distress, and disability. This framework has shaped assessment tools, treatment approaches, and patient
An international group of researchers has developed a standardized dataset aimed at improving how pain researchers document social and structural factors that influence pain. The initiative, known as Identifying Social factors that Stratify Health Opportunities and Outcomes (ISSHOOs), outlines a core set of sociodemographic variables that pain studies should collect
Nociceptive pain is when your body reacts to stimuli like pressure, chemicals, or heat after the stimuli has reached a threshold before it becomes pain. Neuropathic and nociplastic pain do not depend on these triggers. Neuropathic pain comes from damage to the somatosensory nervous system. Nociplastic pain occurs when there’s
Researchers in a 2024 study of more than 15,300 patients with chronic low back pain found that patients’ pain drawings on a body chart “do not signify psychological distress.” Instead, they find that these drawings are more closely associated with physical symptoms, such as disability, pain duration, and pain intensity.
A team of international researchers found that exercise, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness, and multidisciplinary care could reduce chronic low back pain and disability for one year or longer. Although these treatments have at least a moderate level of certainty, about 68% of the studies have a high risk of
Key takeaways University of Sydney researchers found one treatment (NSAIDs) to be effective at moderate-level certainty for acute low back pain Five treatments (exercise, spinal manipulation, taping, antidepressants, TRPV1 agonists) with statistically significant but small effects for chronic low back pain. All were compared to placebo. Some common treatments—like paracetamol,
Key takeaways: Prior plausibility: Evaluate how a claim aligns with established science. For example, “human energy fields” lack solid biological or physical foundations, making them low in plausibility—unlike massage’s impact on nervous and immune systems, which is far more plausible Methodology: Focus on the methods and results sections—they’re the least
Clinical equipoise means that clinicians and researchers honestly don’t know which treatment is better. Therefore, no researcher favors one treatment over another during the experiment design, which reduces the risk of bias. If one treatment is already known to be better, it would be unethical to give someone the inferior
A 2024 systematic review of 17 systematic reviews found that the evidence and certainty of massage therapy for 13 pain conditions to be predominately “low” or “very low.” “There were only a few conditions for which [the] authors of systematic reviews concluded that there was at least moderate-certainty evidence regarding
A group of British, Australian, and Finnish researchers identified eight clinical trials that skew the results of 32 systematic reviews and 10 clinical practical guidelines for spinal pain, according to their study published in The Journal of Pain in 2023. These trials examine cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and/or physical therapy for
A group of European, Australian, and U.S. researchers identified several factors that reduce the trustworthiness of pain research, according to a review published in The Journal of Pain in 2025. These factors include: Failure to meet current standards of governance and integrity Undeclared or poorly managed conflicts of interest Unethical