New Advances in the Treatment of Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

Dear Colleagues,

It is evident that chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMSKP) can be an extremely challenging condition for both patients and healthcare providers. Increasingly, it is being recognized as a public health issue, with severe clinical, economic, and social consequences. Approximately one third of the adult population suffers from CMSKP, which causes long-term complications that require further healthcare, resulting in a substantial decrease in patients' quality of life. Current evidence reveals two main positive methods in CMSKP treatment: one is the multifaceted approach based on the biopsychosocial model and the specific needs of the patient and the other one is individualized management according to pain phenotyping.

CMSKP is well known to be influenced by a number of factors that interact and contribute to its severity and persistence, including physical inactivity, sedentary behavior, poor sleep, unhealthy diet, stress, and smoking. Moreover, psychosocial and cognitive behavioral factors, including pain catastrophizing, anxiety, fear-avoidance, incorrect illness perceptions and depression, are not only associated with the transition from acute to chronic pain but they are also implicated in the severity and extent of pain and disability as well. It is therefore necessary for CMSKP treatment to include a multidisciplinary approach that integrates physiological, cognitive, psychological, clinical, and self-regulation techniques.

In precision medicine, patients are classified into subgroups based on their susceptibility to certain diseases, their biological profiles, their estimated prognosis levels or their response to a specific treatment, enabling them to receive personalized care based on their unique characteristics. When it comes to CMSKP treatment, it seems a promising and clinically relevant issue to be able to categorize patients into the three major pain phenotypes (i.e., nociceptive, neuropathic, and nociplastic as defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)) as it can help patients access pain management based on their pain mechanism.

This Special Issue welcomes studies or reviews (systematic, scoping reviews) considering new advances in the rehabilitation of chronic musculoskeletal pain, on the topics including but not limited to:

• CMSKP phenotyping treatment
• Clinical communication skills in CMSKP management
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Pain neuroscience education
• New technology such as mHealth and virtual reality
• Rehabilitation techniques such as exercise therapy, behavioral graded activity, manual therapy, acupuncture, yoga and tai chi
• Self-regulation/mindfulness strategies
• Electrophysical agents such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
• Therapeutic modalities such as transcranial magnetic stimulation
• Lifestyle approaches such as stress management, sleep management, nutrition
• Others.

Dr. Eleni Kapreli
Guest Editor

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