Researchers analyze the role of kinesiophobia in individuals with chronic pain

Finding out how kinesiophobia –unreasonable fear of movement– may affect individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain is the aim of a research group of the University of Malaga (UMA), which recent studies have been published in the scientific journal British Journal of Sports Medicine, the world's number 1 publication in the locomotor system field.

After several systematic reviews, the researhcers detected in a 2018 study that individuals showing greater levels of chronic pain and longer pain duration also show a greater degree of fear of movement.

In a second stage of study, the researchers focused on a specific non-chronic pain in whiplash, where, as they verified, it seems that kinesiophobia doesn't play such a crucial role in the chronicization of these symptoms.

"We can affirm that fear of movement does not have such a decisive influence on patients with whiplash," says Professor of Physiotherapy Alejandro Luque Suárez, main researcher of these studies, who adds that there are other biopsychosocial factors that justify it. Analyzing these causes and the reason, currently in an experimental stage, is the next step of the study.

On the other hand, in a systematic review of patients with chronic low back pain published in the journal Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, researchers recommended the combination of education and exercise under professional supervision as the best therapy to reduce kinesiophobia.