Chronic pain is pain that persists or recurs beyond the normal time of tissue healing, conventionally defined as lasting longer than three months, and is now recognized as a condition in its own right rather than merely a symptom. It may be nociceptive, neuropathic, or nociplastic in mechanism, and is sustained by p…
Chronic pain is pain that persists or recurs beyond the normal time of tissue healing, conventionally defined as lasting longer than three months, and is now recognized as a condition in its own right rather than merely a symptom. It may be nociceptive, neuropathic, or nociplastic in mechanism, and is sustained by peripheral and central sensitization, in which alterations in synaptic and somatic plasticity, neuroinflammation, and descending modulatory pathways amplify and perpetuate pain signaling. Contributing factors include nerve injury, inflammation, trauma, and disease, while psychological and social dimensions strongly influence its impact, frequently co-occurring with depression, anxiety, and reduced quality of life. Assessment integrates sensory, functional, and psychosocial evaluation, and management is multimodal, spanning pharmacological, interventional, neuromodulatory, behavioral, and physical approaches. Research in this area examines chronic pain mechanisms and treatment, including epigenetic regulation of BDNF expression, pain-related cytokine changes and auricular vagus nerve stimulation, music-induced analgesia through endogenous opioid production, synaptic plasticity in the dentate gyrus, and chronic pain in specific clinical populations such as transplant recipients, as well as its psychosocial and comorbid dimensions. The journal publishes peer-reviewed research on the pathophysiology, measurement, comorbidity, and treatment of chronic pain.
12 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
The 12 articles above have been cited 22 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Chronic Pain, linking to each citing work.