Behavioral activation and behavioral inhibition: An examination of function in chronic pain.

The sample was Veterans receiving VA care who agreed to join a group pain trial, so the findings may not apply to non-Veterans, Veterans outside the VA, people unwilling to join trials, or people with less severe pain. The data were cross-sectional baseline data, so the study cannot show that inhibition or activation sensitivity caused function differences, or that changing them would improve outcomes. The associations were modest, and the authors say the ability of BIS-BAS to predict clinically meaningful outcomes or support clinically meaningful change still needs demonstration. Positive function despite pain was added only in cohort 4, so that outcome was not collected for earlier enrolled participants. The trial interventions were not analyzed here; this report is about baseline associations, not treatment effects.

Do not conclude that treating behavioral activation or inhibition will improve chronic pain function. The study measured associations at one baseline time point and did not test the trial interventions, so it cannot show cause or treatment benefit.