Contralateral Arm Pain as a Sign of Distress Regarding Symptoms
Floor A. Davids, Jose C. Padilla, David Ring, Gregg A. Vagner, Lee M. Reichel, Sina Ramtin

TL;DR
The study explores how pain in an arm not affected by injury relates to distress and unhelpful thoughts about symptoms.
Contribution
The study introduces a novel approach to identifying distress through contralateral arm pain in musculoskeletal patients.
Findings
Contralateral arm pain was linked to distress in bivariate analysis but not in multivariable analysis.
Greater pain intensity in the affected arm was associated with increased distress and no prior surgery.
Higher capability was linked to less distress, along with being married/partnered and male.
Abstract
Pain intensity and magnitude of incapability are associated with common unhelpful thoughts about symptoms such as catastrophic thinking and kinesiophobia. To determine whether reports of pain in the upper limb contralateral to a non-trauma condition were associated with unhelpful thoughts, we measured the relationship between pain intensity in the opposite limb and levels of unhelpful thinking. In a cross-sectional study, 152 new and return patients seeking care of an upper-limb musculoskeletal condition completed measures of upper-extremity-specific magnitude of capability, pain intensity of the involved and contralateral arms, unhelpful thoughts regarding symptoms, symptoms of distress regarding symptoms, and general symptoms of depression. Factors associated with contralateral and ipsilateral pain intensity and upper-extremity-specific magnitude of capability were assessed using…
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Taxonomy
TopicsPain Management and Placebo Effect · Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation · Psychological Treatments and Assessments
