This position paper, written by an international group of 100 clinicians, researchers, educators and patients, examines why musculoskeletal pain care so often still follows a find it and fix it model.
What was studied?
100 international stakeholders considered how persistent, non-traumatic musculoskeletal pain is currently treated, comparing a structural, diagnosis-driven model against reframing pain as a long-term condition requiring self-management.
What did they find?
The paper calls for care to prioritise education, advice and genuine self-management over expensive treatments driven by chasing a precise structural diagnosis, describing current global pain management as a super wicked problem.
Why it matters
Persistent pain is often not a sign that something remains badly broken and undiscovered. It is better understood as a long-term condition that responds best to ongoing self-management support.
Why we included it
It illustrates a shift in how chronic pain is best framed: as an ongoing condition to manage well, not a single fault waiting to be found and fixed.
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What was studied?
100 international stakeholders considered how persistent, non-traumatic musculoskeletal pain is currently treated, comparing a structural, diagnosis-driven model against reframing pain as a long-term condition requiring self-management.
What did they find?
The paper calls for care to prioritise education, advice and genuine self-management over expensive treatments driven by chasing a precise structural diagnosis, describing current global pain management as a super wicked problem.
Why it matters
Persistent pain is often not a sign that something remains badly broken and undiscovered. It is better understood as a long-term condition that responds best to ongoing self-management support.
Why we included it
It illustrates a shift in how chronic pain is best framed: as an ongoing condition to manage well, not a single fault waiting to be found and fixed.