Pain Related Variables

Association Between Pain Related Variables in Patients With Chronic Neck Pain

Chronic neck pain is a common problem among the general population. Patients with chronic neck pain used health care services twice as much as the population on average, mainly due to intense pain intensity. It is well-known that pain intensity depends on the association of pain processing in several levels of central pain processing.

Identifying the association between conditioned pain modulation, temporal summation, and somatosensory representation, all represent separate central pain processing, will provide an opportunity to develop treatment strategies.

Inclusion Criteria:

• pain in the back of the neck region
• pain longer than 3 months
• pain intensity at least 3 based on the visual analog scale

Exclusion Criteria:

• vertebra fracture
• fibromyalgia
• chronic fatigue syndrome
• surgery to the neck or shoulder
• radicular pain
• neurologic deficit due to disk hernia
• spinal stenosis