Musculoskeletal Pain and Treatment-Related Plasticity

Lifestyle factors and treatments that enhance plasticity in a favorable environment can have a significant effect on physical and mental health. These outcomes may be attributed to specific effects (physiological, neurobiological), contextual effects (patient-therapist relationship, set and setting), and non-specific effects (natural history, regression toward the mean).

Musculoskeletal Pain and Treatment-Related Plasticity

Treatments for musculoskeletal pain often have similar outcomes. One underlying concept with relevance to musculoskeletal rehabilitation (physical activity and exercise, manual therapy, acupuncture, cognitive-behavior therapy, mindfulness-based interventions, etc.) is plasticity. 

Plasticity is the ability to modify activity and structure at neural and/or behavioral levels. Central to the concept of plasticity is that people are constantly changing in response to their internal and external environment. This dynamic bi-directional relationship between subjects and their environment is mediated by a whole-body neuro-endocrine-immune response.

Lifestyle factors and treatments that enhance plasticity (physiological, neurobiological, behavioral, etc.) in a favorable environment can have a significant effect on physical and mental health by nudging from a pathological state toward a healthy state.

Lifestyle factors and treatments that enhance plasticity (physiological, neurobiological, behavioral, etc.) in a favorable environment can have a significant effect on physical and mental health by nudging from a pathological state toward a healthy state.

Image From - Branchi, I. (2022). Plasticity in mental health: A network theory. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 138, 104691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104691

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