Recovery expectations can be assessed with single-item measures: findings of a systematic review and meta-analysis on the role of recovery expectations on return-to-work outcomes after musculoskeletal pain conditions.

The objective of this systematic review is to quantify the association between recovery expectations and return-to-work outcomes in adults with musculoskeletal pain conditions. In addition, this review has the second objective to compare the predictive utility of single-item and multi-item recovery expectation scales on return-to-work outcomes. Relevant articles were selected from Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, Cochrane, and manual searches.

Long-term male-specific chronic pain via telomere- and p53‑mediated spinal cord cellular senescence.

Mice with experimental nerve damage can display long‑lasting neuropathic pain behavior. We show here that 4 months and later after nerve injury, male but not female mice displayed telomere length (TL) reduction and p53‑mediated cellular senescence in the spinal cord, resulting in maintenance of pain and associated with decreased lifespan. Nerve injury increased the number of p53‑positive spinal cord neurons, astrocytes, and microglia, but only in microglia was the increase male‑specific, matching a robust sex specificity of TL reduction in this cell type, which has been previously implicated in male‑specific pain processing.

Chronic pain produces hypervigilance to predator odor in mice.

The adaptive significance of acute pain (to withdraw from tissue-damaging or potentially tissue-damaging external stimuli, and to enhance the salience of the stimulus resulting in escape and avoidance learning) and tonic pain (to enforce recuperation by punishing movement) are well-accepted [1]. Pain researchers, however, generally assert that chronic pain has no adaptive significance, representing instead a pathophysiological state. This belief was recently challenged by the observation [2] that nociceptive sensitization caused by a chronic pain-producing injury reduced predation risk in squid (Doryteuthis pealeii).

The Sequential Relation Between Changes in Catastrophizing and Changes in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity.

Catastrophizing has been discussed as a cognitive precursor to the emergence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms following the experience of stressful events. Implicit in cognitive models of PTSD is that treatment-related reductions in catastrophizing should yield reductions in PTSD symptoms. The tenability of this prediction has yet to be tested.

A Systematic Review of the Association Between Perceived Injustice and Pain-Related Outcomes in Individuals with Musculoskeletal Pain.

Objective: A growing body of literature shows that justice-related appraisals are significant determinants of pain-related outcomes and prolonged trajectories of recovery. We conducted a systematic review of the literature assessing the relationship between perceived injustice and pain-related outcomes in individuals with musculoskeletal pain.

Design And Participants: A search of published studies in English in PubMed, PsychInfo, Embase, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from database inception through May 2019 was performed.