Pain Tolerance in Chronic Pain Patients Seems to be More Associated with Physical Activity than with Depression and Anxiety.
Olof Skogberg, Linn Karlsson, Björn Börsbo and 5 others
PMID 35274145WHAT IT FOUND
In chronic pain patients, higher arm pain tolerance was associated with male sex, lower pain intensity, fewer painful regions, higher self-reported physical activity and self-efficacy, not with anxiety or depression.
Key findings
01Patients had lower arm pain tolerance than healthy controls: median 48.8 kPa versus 100.0 kPa.
02Among patients, higher arm pain tolerance was associated with male sex, lower pain intensity, fewer painful regions, higher self-efficacy and higher self-reported physical activity.
03Among patients, arm pain tolerance was not significantly correlated with anxiety or depression.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
People screened for the patient group but not enrolled, and dropouts, were not registered, so the patient sample may be selected. The study measured everything at one time, so it cannot show whether low physical activity leads to low pain tolerance, or pain and low tolerance lead to less activity. Physical activity was measured with a questionnaire, not an accelerometer, and questionnaire activity estimates have limitations. The patient group had many different chronic pain diagnoses, so results may not apply to one specific condition. No adjustment for multiple comparisons was made. Patients were selected for an interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation programme and excluded several conditions, including severe psychiatric morbidity, strong opioid use and anticoagulant treatment.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that increasing physical activity will raise pain tolerance. The study measured activity and pain tolerance at the same time, and it does not show that changing activity changes tolerance.