Pain Begets Pain: Predictors of Long-term Phantom Limb and Pain and Post-thoracotomy Pain

Dworkin has written a timely Focus article in which he discusses factors associated with the transition of acute pain to chronic pain. Perhaps the most interesting and important argument he makes is that the severity of acute pain predicts chronic pain. In light of the bewildering number of factors associated with chronic pain, the multitude of chronic pain disorders in existence, the numerous peripheral and central nervous system mechanisms known to contribute to pain, and the disparate inclusion/exclusion criteria used in studies of chronic pain, it is somewhat surprising that severity of acute pain emerges as a risk factor for chronic pain.