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The following is a summary of “Systemic Inflammation, Sleep, and Psychological Factors Determine Recovery Trajectories for People With Neck Pain: An Exploratory Study,” published in the August 2024 issue of Pain by Schipholt et al.

Acute neck pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal conditions affecting people’s QoL worldwide, leading to multiple recovery outcomes modulated with varied factors. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study for 6 months to identify pain and disability trajectories and assessed whether neuroimmune/endocrine, psychological, behavioral, nociceptive processing, clinical outcome, demographic, and management-related factors may differ between the trajectories.

They assessed 50 people with acute neck pain. They analyzed at baseline, at 2, 4, 6, 12, and 26 weeks follow-up, various neuroimmune/endocrine factors, psychological including stress symptoms, behavioral such as sleep disturbances, nociceptive processing encompassed condition pain modulation, clinical outcome incorporated with trauma, demographic factors such as age and management-related factors. Latent class models were accessed to identify outcome trajectories for neck pain and disability. Linear mixed models and the Pearson chi-square test were taken to evaluate differences in the factors between the trajectories at baseline and for 6-month follow-up. 

The results showed 3 pain trajectories and 2 disability trajectories. Pain trajectories include moderate-pain favorable trajectory (n=25, 50%), Severe pain-favorable trajectory (n=16,32%), and severe pain-unfavorable trajectory (n=9,18%). Disability trajectories were identified as mild disability–favorable recovery (n=43,82%) and severe disability–unfavorable recovery(n=7, 18%). Patients with unfavorable trajectories had high levels of systemic inflammation with elevated high-sensitive C-reactive protein, sleep disturbances, and psychological issues (depression, stress, and anxiety) as compared to favorable trajectories. 

Investigators concluded that systemic inflammation, sleep disturbances, and psychological factors influenced different recovery trajectories for acute neck pain.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1526590024003778