Pain Neuroscience Education on Reducing Opioid Dependency in African American and Caucasian Populations: A Narrative Review

TL;DR

This paper reviews how pain neuroscience education might help reduce opioid dependency in African American and Caucasian populations, considering sociocultural and systemic factors.

Contribution

The paper introduces a systems-based perspective on how pain neuroscience education could address ethnic disparities in opioid use and chronic pain.

Findings

African Americans face systemic barriers to effective treatment for pain and opioid use disorder.

Caucasians are more likely to be overprescribed opioids and have higher rates of opioid use disorder.

Pain neuroscience education may help reduce nociplastic pain and opioid dependency when used alongside traditional therapy.

Abstract

This review explores pain neuroscience education (PNE) in the context of opioid dependence among Caucasian and African American populations, addressing disparities and sociocultural influences in the opioid epidemic. Von Bertalanffy’s general systems theory and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory comprise the underlying theoretical frameworks behind the review, emphasizing the importance of biopsychosocial perspectives of chronic pain and ecological systems on individual development. Within these frameworks, the study objective is to summarize relevant and contemporary literature among African American and Caucasian populations regarding opioid dependency, neuroplasticity in chronic pain, and PNE. Peer-reviewed articles published within the last 10 years were reviewed for relevance. Limitations include a lack of research on the intersection of ethnicity and PNE, a lack of studies investigating interdisciplinary input regarding PNE, and a focus on only two ethnic groups. This narrative review finds that African Americans face systemic barriers to effective treatment for pain and opioid use disorder (OUD), while Caucasians are more likely to be overprescribed with higher rates of OUD. From a systems and ecological perspective, maladaptive neuroplasticity in chronic pain (biologic subsystem) intersects with ethnic disparities in prescribing access and pain beliefs (psychosocial subsystem) to influence opioid use and the chronic pain experience. PNE shows promise as an adjunct to traditional physical therapy in reducing nociplastic pain, potentially affecting opioid dependency. Future research should incorporate readiness-to-change models, generational and ethnocultural perspectives, and neuroimaging with PNE to optimize the delivery of PNE to individuals of different backgrounds.