From Pain to Gain: A Multidisciplinary Pathway to Recovery, Resilience, and Vitality
A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Healthcare Quality, Patient Safety, and Self-care Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: injury prevention; musculoskeletal health & rehabilitation; integrative systems based approaches to movement and recovery; resilience, functional performance and health span optimization; translational frameworks connecting clinical practice
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Pain is a multi-dimensional experience that extends far beyond nociception, influencing physical function, sleep, stress, nutrition, psychosocial well-being, and quality of life. If inadequately addressed, pain may reinforce a degenerative cascade in which reduced activity, inadequate sleep, increased stress, poor diet, weight gain, and social withdrawal reinforce one another, ultimately amplifying pain and accelerating functional decline. Traditional pain management strategies have focused on single modalities or symptom reduction alone, which fall short in optimizing long-term function for optimized health span.
This Special Issue, “From Pain to Gain: A Multidisciplinary Pathway to Recovery, Resilience, and Vitality”, aims to advance a holistic, multi-dimensional, skills-based perspective on pain recovery, emphasizing interdisciplinary strategies to promote optimal function. Central to this approach is the concept of skill synergy, wherein health behaviors such as movement, sleep hygiene, stress management, and social engagement are learnable skills that interact synergistically to reverse the downward spiral associated with pain. By targeting multiple domains simultaneously, integrated interventions generate upward momentum towards recovery and sustained health.
We invite contributions spanning integrated conceptual frameworks, intervention studies, and research bridging discovery and practice that explores pain through a wide lens from multiple angles. Work linking contemporary pain experiences with evolutionary perspectives, showing how ancestral adaptations influence suffering and recovery, is especially encouraged. Topics of interest include rehabilitation and physical activity, lifestyle and nutritional interventions, sleep and stress regulation, psychosocial determinants of recovery and personalized, patient-centered outcomes. Collectively, we seek holistic strategies that enable individuals to reclaim capacity, resilience, and vitality.
Dr. Bohdanna Zazulak
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- pain management
- rehabilitation
- exercise therapy
- functional recovery
- biopsychosocial model
- integrated care
- physical therapy
- lifestyle modification
- quality of life
- health behavior
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
