The following is a summary of “Effect of Information on the Time Course of Pain During an Episode of Acute Experimentally Induced Low Back Pain—A Randomised Experiment,” published in the April 2025 issue of European Journal of Pain by Travers et al. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to compare the time course of pain intensity ratings between 2 groups who received different information during an episode of acute experimentally induced low back pain (LBP).  

They enrolled 50 weight-training naive and participants free from pain. After performing a back exercise to induce delayed onset muscle soreness, 1 group was told of muscle damage and advised to protect their back, while the other group was informed of tissue sensitization and encouraged to stay active. The primary outcome, movement-evoked LBP intensity, was estimated by an 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS 0–10). The pain was recorded at baseline, post-intervention, and daily for 7 days. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were employed to evaluate the treatment effects on average daily pain.  

The results showed that movement-evoked pain intensity scores changed over time in both groups (main effect of time: χ² (7) = 246.2, P < 0.001). However, the intervention had no effect on pain intensity scores (main effect of group: χ² (1) = 0.02, P = 0.895). The adjusted mean difference between groups was −0.05/10 (95% CI: −0.72 to 0.63, P = 0.895) when averaged across all time points.  

Investigators concluded that the simulated LBP episode revealed that information emphasizing tissue sensitivity and encouraging activity did not lead to greater pain improvement compared to information focusing on tissue damage and recommending rest and protection. 

Source: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejp.70011