Chronic pain conditions are currently the most common and economically-burdensome health ailment in the United States. The present article highlights and reviews multiple dimensions associated with chronic pain including; biological, phsycial, psychological and social factors that all need to be assessed and treated simultaneously. This article will review research in several dimensions that are affected by chronic pain which include the economic impact of chronic pain, the current issues with the biomedical approach of treating pain, advantages to the biopsychosocial approach for pain management, and how pain is associated with physical deconditioning, postural control, gait, sleep quality, and psychosocial well-being. Most importantly, this article corroborates with the reviewed research that the biopsychosocial model of pain is the most appropriate model for addressing the aforementioned factors circumscribing such conditions. Finally, this article will underline the development of interdisciplinary interventions, such as functional restoration, that have shown to be both therapeutic and cost-effective in managing chronic pain.
In an earlier Special Issue in the Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research (JABR), Gatchel (Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 2017, 22[1], e12088) addressed the construct of pain catastrophizing (PC). The present article is meant to extend those reviews within a biopsychosocial context, as well as update recent research on PC with a specific concentration on genetic factors. An overview of biological factors as they relate to PC and epigenetics are reviewed first (brain areas associated with pain and how they adapt neurochemically to chronic noxious stimuli, polymorphism of various genes, etc.), proceeded by the discussion of psychological (depression, anxiety, and the genomic link to neuroticism) and social influences (reason people engage in PC, age's impact on neuronal restructuring) as they corroborate the argument of PC's link to genetic factors. Finally, this article concludes by providing future directions for research concerning PC such as examining the efficacy of Pain Neurobiology Education, as well as gene therapy.
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