History of Significant Injury for Pain

The prevalence of chronic pain has been estimated at 30% in the US and these values may under report the true prevalence of people who experience long term pain as additional research has shown that 73% will have a reoccurrence of symptoms within 12 months of the original injury indicating that while the pain and symptoms may resolve, additional impairments or issues may underlie the symptoms. Biopsychosocial factors such as depression, post traumatic stress, anxiety, pain catastrophizing, and negative emotions have been closely linked to pain and can influence a patient's pain perceptions. Along these lines, the memory of past experiences and trauma potentially play a large role in these biopsychosocial responses. Research is evolving and a strong correlation has been established between chronic pain and prior history of trauma or abuse and also non-traumatic incidents such as motor vehicle accidents and injuries/surgical procedures. This has led to speculation and research that explores how a variety of life events may become stimulants for long-term alterations in the processing and manifestation of pain and how they may have an enduring impact on physical health outcomes. The proposed research will add to the body of knowledge underlying the association between pain, memory, autonomic system, and neuromuscular function. The goal of this project is to study the relationship between pain memory systems, specifically acute pain, short-term memory of pain, and long term pain memory, and their effects upon neuromuscular and autonomic system responses in the body.