Journal Article Review Epublish 3 citations
PubMed: 42356003 DOI: 10.3390/jcm15124835
Multimorbidity in Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions: From Burden to Integrated Care.
J Clin Med 15(12)
Authors: Emmanuel d'Incau, Chelsea Marie Kaplan, Jean-Arthur Micoulaud-Franchi, Christin Veasley, Richard Ohrbach
Affiliations
- SANPSY, CNRS, UMR 6033, CHU de Bordeaux, Place Amélie Raba Léon, University of Bordeaux, F-33000 Bordeaux, France.
- Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
- Chronic Pain Research Alliance, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
- Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences, School of Dental Medicine, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.
Abstract
Chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs) refer to a set of chronic pain disorders that frequently co-occur and may involve partially overlapping mechanisms. The U.S. National Institutes of Health currently recognizes ten COPCs: fibromyalgia, painful temporomandibular disorders, chronic low back pain, chronic migraine headache, chronic tension-type headache, irritable bowel syndrome, endometriosis, interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome, vulvodynia, and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. When multiple COPCs coexist, they are associated with a disproportionate multimorbidity burden, including greater pain, poorer psychological well-being, functional limitations, disability, fatigue, sleep disturbances, diminished quality of life, and increased healthcare utilization. Despite their impact, COPCs remain under-recognized, underdiagnosed, and undertreated. Combining structured literature searches and citation tracking with narrative syntheses, this review examines comorbid relationships, the burden of multimorbidity, and potentially overlapping nociplastic mechanisms. By adopting a multimorbidity-based perspective rather than a one-disease, one-treatment approach, it highlights barriers to care-including limited clinical awareness, under-recognition of additional COPCs, limited mechanistic understanding, and fragmented care-and proposes integrated strategies emphasizing prevention, systematic screening, mechanism-informed assessment, and coordinated, patient-centered multimodal management.
MeSH
Headache, Comorbidity, Chronic Pain, Pain, Migraine Disorders, Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic, Fatigue, Multimorbidity, Nociplastic Pain