Open AccessChronic Pain and Fear-Avoidance Beliefs: A Narrative Review
Author(s) -
Vrushali Panhale,
Prachita Walankar,
Sayali S. Khedekar
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of health sciences and research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2249-9571
DOI - 10.52403/ijhsr.20210634
Subject(s) - chronic pain , psychosocial , medicine , anticipation (artificial intelligence) , narrative review , quality of life (healthcare) , pain catastrophizing , clinical psychology , psychiatry , nursing , artificial intelligence , intensive care medicine , computer science
Chronic pain has an impact not only on the physical function but also affects the quality of life of an individual. Psychosocial factors play an important role in mediating chronic pain. Fear-avoidance belief is considered as the important psychosocial factor in predicting patient's avoidance for work and physical activity as well as disability and has strong association with chronic pain. The aim of the study is to review the studies on the relationship between chronic pain and fear-avoidance beliefs. Articles from the PubMed, Research gate, Google Scholar and APTA databases were searched for this narrative review with related keywords like chronic pain, chronic musculoskeletal pain, fear avoidance beliefs, psychosocial factors and quality of life. Total fifteen articles were found. Out of which, five were excluded and ten were studied further. The sum of evidences proves that the fear-avoidance belief is an important predictor of pain. Through this we conclude that the anticipation of chronic pain can further provoke fear-avoidance behaviour and can give rise to a vicious cycle, in which fear can contribute to avoidance of physical activity and work leading to disability.Key words: chronic, pain, fear avoidance beliefs.