The authors of this article aimed to investigate the prevalence of persistent pain associated with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI).

Persistent pain is a very common, but difficult thing to address clinically, and the authors start by acknowledging the Stedman Medical Dictionary definition of pain:

“An unpleasant sensation associated with actual or potential tissue damage, and mediated by specific nerve fibres to the brain where its conscious appreciation may be modified by various factors.”    

This definition notably acknowdledges that injury does not always result in pain and pain is not always caused by injury. Thus, fully addressing pain can be a difficult in the wider clinical picture.

For this article, the authors focused on additional social demographics, clinical presentation and behavioural variants to determine which factors would likely indicate an increased risk for persistent pain.