A Break from Pain! Interruption Management in the Context of Pain

Abstract

Activity interruptions, namely temporary suspensions of an ongoing task with the intention to resume it later, are common in pain. First, pain is a threat signal that urges us to interrupt ongoing activities in order to manage the pain and its cause. Second, activity interruptions are used in chronic pain management. However, activity interruptions by pain may carry costs for activity performance. These costs have recently started to be systematically investigated. We review the evidence on the consequences of activity interruptions by pain for the performance of the interrupted activity. Further, inspired by literature on interruptions from other research fields, we suggest ways to improve interruption management in the field of pain, and provide a future research agenda.

Keywords::

• activity pacing
• chronic pain
• interruption management

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was largely conducted during a PhD Aspirant Fellowship (grant ID: 11N8215N) granted to Rena Gatzounis by the Research Foundation – Flanders (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [FWO] Vlaanderen), Belgium. The contribution of JWS Vlaeyen was supported by the Asthenes long-term structural funding–Methusalem grant by the Flemish Government, Belgium (METH/15/011). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was largely conducted during a PhD Aspirant Fellowship (grant ID: 11N8215N) granted to Rena Gatzounis by the Research Foundation – Flanders (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [FWO] Vlaanderen), Belgium. The contribution of JWS Vlaeyen was supported by the Asthenes long-term structural funding–Methusalem grant by the Flemish Government, Belgium (METH/15/011). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.