Sensorimotor Uncertainty of Immersive Virtual Reality Environments for People in Pain: Scoping Review.

INTRODUCTION: Decision making and action execution both rely on sensory information, and their primary objective is to minimise uncertainty. Virtual reality (VR) introduces uncertainty due to the imprecision of perceptual information. The concept of "sensorimotor uncertainty" is a pivotal element in the interplay between perception and action within the VR environment. The role of immersive VR in the four stages of motor behaviour decision making in people with pain has been previously discussed. These four processing levels are the basis to understand the uncertainty that a patient experiences when using VR: sensory information, current state, transition rules, and the outcome obtained. METHODS: This review examines the different types of uncertainty that a patient may experience when they are immersed in a virtual reality environment in a context of pain. Randomised clinical trials, a secondary analysis of randomised clinical trials, and pilot randomised clinical trials related to the scope of Sensorimotor Uncertainty in Immersive Virtual Reality were included after searching. RESULTS: Fifty studies were included in this review. They were divided into four categories regarding the type of uncertainty the intervention created and the stage of the decision-making model. CONCLUSIONS: Immersive virtual reality makes it possible to alter sensorimotor uncertainty, but studies of higher methodological quality are needed on this topic, as well as an exploration into the patient profile for pain management using immersive VR.

Role of Immersive Virtual Reality in Motor Behaviour Decision-Making in Chronic Pain Patients.

Primary chronic pain is a major contributor to disability worldwide, with an estimated prevalence of 20-33% of the world's population. The high socio-economic impact of musculoskeletal pain justifies seeking an appropriate therapeutic strategy. Immersive virtual reality (VR) has been proposed as a first-line intervention for chronic musculoskeletal pain. However, the growing literature has not been accompanied by substantial progress in understanding how VR exerts its impact on the pain experience and what neurophysiological mechanisms might be involved in the clinical effectiveness of virtual reality interventions in chronic pain patients. The aim of this review is: (i) to establish the state of the art on the effects of VR on patients with chronic pain; (ii) to identify neuroplastic changes associated with chronic pain that may be targeted by VR intervention; and (iii) to propose a hypothesis on how immersive virtual reality could modify motor behavioral decision-making through an interactive experience in patients with chronic pain.

Is it Possible to Reduce Pain-Related Fear in Individuals with Knee Osteoarthritis? a Systematic Review of Randomised Clinical Trials.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions in reducing pain-related fear outcomes in people with knee osteoarthritis who have or have not had previous knee surgery, and to analyze whether included trials reported their interventions in full detail. METHODS: Systematic searches were carried out in the Cochrane CENTRAL, CINAHL, EMBASE, PEDro, PsycINFO, PubMed, and SPORTDiscus from the inception of the database up to November 2019. Searches were manually updated to July 2021. We included randomized clinical trials that evaluated pain-related fear outcomes as a primary or secondary outcome in adults with knee osteoarthritis. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool 2 and the GRADE approach evaluated the risk of bias and the certainty of the evidence, respectively. RESULTS: Eighteen trials were included. Four trials evaluated pain-related fear as a primary outcome and all evaluated kinesiophobia in samples that had previously undergone a knee surgical procedure. These trials found that interventions based primarily on cognitive aspects (e.g. cognitive-behavioral principles) can be effective in reducing kinesiophobia. Trials evaluating pain-related fear as the secondary outcome also found that interventions that included cognitive aspects (e.g. pain neuroscience education) decreased the levels of pain-related fear (e.g. fear of falling or kinesiophobia) in patients with or without a previous knee surgery. However, serious to very serious risk of bias and imprecisions were found in included trials. Thus, the certainty of the evidence was judged as low and very low using the GRADE approach. All trials reported insufficient details to allow a complete replication of their interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions that include cognitive aspects may be the best option to reduce pain-related fear in people with knee osteoarthritis. However, we found a general low and very low certainty of the evidence and the findings should be considered with caution.

Pain Catastrophizing, Opioid Misuse, Opioid Use, and Opioid Dose in People With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Systematic Review.

The objective of this study was to analyze the cross-sectional and longitudinal association between pain catastrophizing and opioid misuse, opioid use, and opioid dose in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain. For this systematic review, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, manual searches, and grey literature were searched from inception to May 2020. Observational studies were included if they evaluated the association between pain catastrophizing and opioid dose, opioid use, and/or opioid misuse in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Two reviewers independently performed the study selection, data extraction, risk of bias assessment, and the certainty of the evidence judgment. Seven observational studies (all cross-sectional designs) satisfied the eligibility criteria, with a total sample of 2,160 participants. Pain catastrophizing was associated with opioid misuse. The results were inconsistent regarding the association between pain catastrophizing and opioid use. A lack of association was found considering pain catastrophizing and the opioid dose. However, the presence of risk of bias and imprecision was serious across the included studies, and therefore, the overall certainty of the evidence was judged as very low for all the outcome measures. This report concludes that pain catastrophizing seem to be associated with opioid misuse in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain. However, the very low certainty of the current evidence confers to interpret the finding of this review as exclusively informative. PERSPECTIVE: This article shows that pain catastrophizing seem to be associated with opioid misuse in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain. The overall certainty of the evidence was judged to be very low, thus, these results should be interpreted with caution.

Intervention Therapies to Reduce Pain-Related Fear in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials.

OBJECTIVE: This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions at reducing pain-related fear in people with fibromyalgia and to analyze whether the included trials reported their interventions in full detail. DESIGN: Systematic review. SETTING: No restrictions. METHODS: The Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Scopus were searched from their inception to April 2020, along with manual searches and a gray literature search. Randomized clinical trials were included if they assessed pain-related fear constructs as the primary or secondary outcome in adults with fibromyalgia. Two reviewers independently performed the study selection, data extraction, risk-of-bias assessment, Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist assessment, and grading the quality of evidence. RESULTS: Twelve randomized clinical trials satisfied the eligibility criteria, including 11 cohorts with a total sample of 1,441 participants. Exercise, multicomponent, and psychological interventions were more effective than controls were in reducing kinesiophobia. However, there were no differences in decreasing kinesiophobia when self-management and electrotherapy were used. There were also no differences between groups with regard to the rest of the interventions and pain-related constructs (fear-avoidance beliefs, fear of pain, and pain-related anxiety). However, a serious risk of bias and a very serious risk of imprecision were detected across the included trials. This caused the overall certainty of the judged evidence to be low and very low. Additionally, the included trials reported insufficient details to allow the full replication of their interventions. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review shows that there are promising interventions, such as exercise, multicomponent, and psychological therapies, that may decrease one specific type of fear in people with fibromyalgia, i.e., kinesiophobia. However, because of the low-very low certainty of the evidence found, a call for action is needed to improve the quality of randomized clinical trials, which will lead to more definitive information about the clinical efficacy of interventions in this field.

The Role of Positive Psychological Factors in the Association between Pain Intensity and Pain Interference in Individuals with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Cross-Sectional Study.

This study aimed to test the cross-sectional mediating and moderating role that positive psychological factors play in the association between pain intensity and pain interference in individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain. A descriptive cross-sectional study using mediation analyses was conducted, including 186 individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain. We conducted cross-sectional mediation and moderation analyses to determine whether the positive psychological factors mediated or moderated the association between pain intensity and pain interference. Pain acceptance, pain self-efficacy, and optimism were all significantly and weakly related to pain interference when controlling for pain intensity. Pain self-efficacy and pain acceptance partially mediated the association between pain intensity and pain interference. On the other hand, the multiple mediation model did not show significant effects. The three positive psychological factors were not found to significantly moderate the association between pain intensity and pain interference. The findings suggest that in chronic musculoskeletal pain patients, the treatments may focus on [i] what they are capable of doing to manage the pain (i.e., pain self-efficacy) and [ii] being better able to accept the pain as pain waxes and wanes might be also particularly helpful. However, these results must be tested in longitudinal studies before drawing any causal conclusion.

Which Interventions Enhance Pain Self-efficacy in People With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain? A Systematic Review With Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials, Including Over 12 000 Participants.

OBJECTIVE: To find out which interventions enhance pain self-efficacy in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain and to evaluate the reporting of interventions designed to enhance pain self-efficacy. DESIGN: Intervention systematic review with meta-analysis. LITERATURE SEARCH: PubMed, Embase, Scopus, PsycINFO, CINAHL, PEDro, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched from inception up to September 2019. STUDY SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomized controlled trials evaluating pain self-efficacy as a primary or secondary outcome in chronic musculoskeletal pain. DATA SYNTHESIS: We used the Cochrane risk of bias tool and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach to evaluate the risk of bias and the certainty of the evidence, respectively. RESULTS: Sixty randomized controlled trials were included (12 415 participants). There was a small effect of multicomponent, psychological, and exercise interventions improving pain self-efficacy at follow-ups of 0 to 3 months, a small effect of exercise and multicomponent interventions enhancing pain self-efficacy at follow-ups of 4 to 6 months, and a small effect of multicomponent interventions improving pain self-efficacy at follow-ups of 7 to 12 months. No interventions improved pain self-efficacy after 12 months. Self-management interventions did not improve pain self-efficacy at any follow-up time. Risk of bias, the nature of the control group, and the instrument to assess pain self-efficacy moderated the effects of psychological therapies at follow-ups of 7 to 12 months. The certainty of the evidence for all included interventions was low, due to serious risk of bias and indirectness. No trial reported the intervention in sufficient detail to allow full replication. CONCLUSION: There was low-quality evidence of a small effect of multicomponent exercise and psychological interventions improving pain self-efficacy in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2020;50(8):418-430. doi:10.2519/jospt.2020.9319.

Which Psychological Factors Are Involved in the Onset and/or Persistence of Musculoskeletal Pain? An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Prospective Cohort Studies.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to summarize the current status of knowledge about the longitudinal association between vulnerability or protective psychological factors and the onset and/or persistence of musculoskeletal (MSK) pain. METHODS: PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PubPsych, Scopus, Web of Science, gray literature, and manual screening of references were searched from inception to June 15, 2019. Systematic reviews with or without meta-analysis that explored the longitudinal association between psychological factors and the onset and/or persistence of MSK pain were identified. The AMSTAR-2 tool was used to assess the risk of bias. RESULTS: Fifty-nine systematic reviews that included 286 original research studies were included, with a total of 249,657 participants (127,370 with MSK pain and 122,287 without MSK pain at baseline). Overall, our results found that exposure to many psychological vulnerability factors such as depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and fear, among others, may increase the risk of the onset and persistence of MSK pain across time. In addition, our results also showed that a range of psychological factors considered to be "protective" such as self-efficacy beliefs, better mental health, active coping strategies, or favorable expectations of recovery may reduce the risk of the onset and persistence of MSK pain. However, all these systematic reviews were evaluated to have critically low confidence based on the AMSTAR-2 tool, indicating that findings from these reviews may be informative, but should be interpreted with caution. DISCUSSION: The large number of methodological flaws found across reviews gives rise to a call to action to develop high-quality systematic reviews in this field.

Conservative Interventions Reduce Fear in Individuals With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review and critically appraise the effectiveness of conservative and surgical interventions to reduce fear in studies of people with chronic low back pain, based on the analysis of randomized controlled trials for which fear was a primary or secondary outcome. DATA SOURCES: Electronic databases PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PEDro, and CENTRAL, as well as manual searches and grey literature were searched from inception until May 2019. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials analyzing the effectiveness of conservative and surgical interventions to reduce fear were included. DATA EXTRACTION: Two reviewers independently conducted the search strategy, study selection, data extraction, risk of bias assessment, and quality of the evidence judgment. DATA SYNTHESIS: Sixty-one studies (n=7201) were included. A large number of fear-related search terms were used but only 3 fear constructs (kinesiophobia, fear-avoidance beliefs, fear of falling) were measured in the included studies. Multidisciplinary and psychological interventions as well as exercise reduced kinesiophobia. Fear-avoidance beliefs were reduced by the aforementioned interventions, manual therapy, and electrotherapy. A multidisciplinary intervention reduced the fear of falling. There was moderate evidence of multidisciplinary interventions and exercise to reduce kinesiophobia. There was moderate evidence of manual therapy and electrotherapy to reduce fear-avoidance beliefs. CONCLUSIONS: The present systematic review highlights the potential effectiveness of conservative interventions to reduce kinesiophobia and fear-avoidance beliefs in individuals with chronic low back pain. This information can help health professionals to reduce fear when treating patients with this condition.

Pain-Related Fear, Pain Intensity and Function in Individuals With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Pain-related fear is considered a strong psychological predictor for both chronic pain and disability. The aims of this study were to systematically review and critically appraise the concurrent association and the predictive value of pain-related fear affecting both pain intensity and disability in individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain (MSK). PubMed, AMED, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PubPsych, and the grey literature were searched from inception to January 2019. Observational studies reporting cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between pain-related fear and pain intensity and/or disability were included. The GRADE criteria judged whether the overall quality and strength of the evidence was high or low in terms of risk of bias, inconsistency, indirectness, imprecision and publication bias. Seventy observational studies (97% cross-sectional) were included with a total sample of 15,623 individuals (63.56% females) with chronic MSK. Pain-related fear is composed of fear of pain, pain-related anxiety, and fear-avoidance beliefs. Greater levels of fear of pain, pain-related anxiety, and fear-avoidance beliefs were significantly associated with greater pain intensity and disability. However, the quality and strength of the evidence was very low owing to the imprecision of results, risk of bias, indirectness, and publication bias were common across the included studies. Despite these limitations, these findings highlight the potential role that pain-related fear may play in chronic MSK and disability. The field would benefit from research using higher quality studies and longitudinal designs. PERSPECTIVE: This article presents promising results about the concurrent association between pain-related fear and both pain intensity and disability in individuals with chronic MSK. Nevertheless, the overall quality and strength of the evidence was very low in terms of risk of bias, indirectness, imprecision, and publication bias. Thus, the findings should be taken with caution, and further research is needed. PROSPERO: CRD42018082018.