☆ 0 citations
2025
John Sturgeon, Zina Trost, Yoni K Ashar, et al.
Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a common, disabling condition characterized by nociplastic pain—where amplified pain signals originate in the nervous system rather than from tissue damage. Current treatments show modest effectiveness, likely because they don't target the…
★ 10 citations
2024
Howard Schubiner, William J. Lowry, Marjorie Heule, et al.
The Journal of Pain
Chronic back and neck pain (CBNP) is the leading cause of disability in the United States, yet its underlying causes remain controversial. While some clinicians attribute CBNP to structural abnormalities found on imaging, research suggests that 80-95% of cases…
★ 25 citations
2024
Brandon C. Yarns, Nicholas J. Jackson, Alexander Alas, et al.
JAMA Network Open
Chronic pain is a significant and disabling condition in older adults, particularly among veterans who experience higher rates of severe pain and psychiatric comorbidities such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD. While cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the s…
★ 11 citations
2023
Hallie Tankha, Mark A. Lumley, Alan Gordon, et al.
The Journal of Pain
Chronic back pain affects millions of people worldwide, and while traditional psychological treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy show modest benefits, emerging neuroscience suggests that some patients with primary (nociplastic) pain—driven primarily by…
★ 4 citations
2023
Michael Donnino, Patricia Howard, Shivani Mehta, et al.
Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes
Long COVID (post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, or PASC) affects 4-35% of infected individuals and causes significant disability and economic burden. However, many patients experience persistent symptoms despite having only mild-to-moderate acute infection and no…
★ 20 citations
2023
Howard Schubiner, Benita Jackson, Kristine M. Molina, et al.
Journal of General Internal Medicine
This paper addresses a critical health inequity: Black Americans experience disproportionately severe chronic pain compared to White Americans, yet receive less pain screening, referral, and treatment. The authors propose that racism itself—operating at cultur…
★ 37 citations
2022
Brandon C. Yarns, Justina T. Cassidy, Amy M. Jimenez
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Chronic pain remains a major healthcare challenge worldwide, yet its underlying causes remain poorly understood. This review focuses on nociplastic pain—a subtype characterized by the absence of clear tissue or nerve damage, including conditions like fibromyal…
★ 46 citations
2022
Mark A. Lumley, Jolin B. Yamin, Bethany D. Pester, et al.
Pain
Chronic pain (CP) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) frequently co-occur, and emerging evidence suggests that unresolved psychological trauma contributes to chronic pain conditions. However, treatment approaches for these conditions have developed indepe…
★ 210 citations
2021
Yoni K. Ashar, Alan Gordon, Howard Schubiner, et al.
JAMA Psychiatry
Chronic back pain (CBP) is a leading cause of disability, and in approximately 85% of cases, no specific peripheral pathology can be identified. Current psychological treatments provide limited pain reduction, suggesting a need for novel approaches. This study…
★ 780 citations
2021
Mary-Ann Fitzcharles, Steven P Cohen, Daniel J Clauw, et al.
The Lancet
Nociplastic pain represents a third mechanistically distinct category of chronic pain, separate from nociceptive pain (caused by tissue damage) and neuropathic pain (caused by nerve injury). This comprehensive review addresses the need for a new clinical frame…
★ 14 citations
2021
Michael W. Donnino, Garrett S. Thompson, Shivani Mehta, et al.
Pain Reports
Chronic back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, yet many cases lack a clear physical or organic cause. This pilot study tested whether psychophysiologic symptom relief therapy (PSRT)—a novel 12-week intervention based on the theory that nonspec…
★ 47 citations
2020
Rachel V. Aaron, Patrick H. Finan, Francis J. Keefe, et al.
American Psychologist
Chronic pain affects 10-30% of adults and children and is increasingly linked to problematic opioid use (CP-POU), creating a significant public health challenge. This narrative review proposes that emotion regulation (ER)—the process of modifying one's emotion…
★ 57 citations
2020
Brandon C. Yarns, Mark A. Lumley, Justina T. Cassidy, et al.
Pain Medicine
Chronic pain is highly prevalent in older adults and increasingly recognized as a central nervous system disorder rather than purely a peripheral tissue problem. While cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered the gold standard psychological treatment f…
★ 165 citations
2020
Ted J Kaptchuk, Christopher C Hemond, Franklin G Miller
BMJ
Chronic pain affects over 100 million American adults and costs hundreds of billions annually. Despite placebos' ubiquitous use in clinical trials and research, their mechanisms and ethical applications remain ambiguous. This state-of-the-art review examines p…
★ 111 citations
2019
Mark A. Lumley, Howard Schubiner
Current Rheumatology Reports
Chronic pain, particularly primary or centralized pain conditions like fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome, affects millions of people and is often inadequately treated with conventional approaches. Patients with these conditions frequently have elevated…
★ 79 citations
2019
Mark A. Lumley, Howard Schubiner
Psychosomatic Medicine
This clinical application paper addresses the growing epidemic of chronic pain and the limitations of current psychological treatment approaches. The authors argue that while cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance/mindfulness-based therapies have em…
★ 167 citations
2019
Giulio Ongaro, Ted J. Kaptchuk
PAIN
This topical review addresses a fundamental challenge to the traditional biomedical model: how to explain symptoms that occur without clear physical pathology and symptom relief from placebo treatments. The authors propose that the Bayesian brain model—which c…
★ 206 citations
2017
Mark A. Lumley, Howard Schubiner, Nancy A. Lockhart, et al.
PAIN
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain condition affecting 2-4% of adults, predominantly women, characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, and cognitive dysfunction. While cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the gold standard psychological treatment for FM, its…
★ 429 citations
2017
Omer Van den Bergh, Michael Witthöft, Sibylle Petersen, et al.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
This review addresses a fundamental challenge in medicine: why the subjective experience of physical symptoms often fails to correspond with objective physiological dysfunction. The paper focuses on medically unexplained symptoms (MUS)—prevalent in primary car…
★ 1,392 citations
2015
Lisa Feldman Barrett, W. Kyle Simmons
Nature Reviews Neuroscience
For decades, neuroscientists viewed the brain as a passive stimulus-response organ that waits for sensory input before acting. This Opinion article challenges that view by presenting the Embodied Predictive Interoception Coding (EPIC) model, which proposes tha…
★ 627 citations
2011
Ethan Kross, Marc G. Berman, Walter Mischel, et al.
PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
The human experience of social rejection is often described using the same language as physical pain—people say rejection "hurts." Prior neuroscience research has shown that both social rejection and physical pain activate brain regions associated with the emo…