The effect of acute pain on proprioceptive performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
James Hc Walker, Rocco Cavaleri, Graham Kerr et al.
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In 30 seconds
This systematic review and meta-analysis examined whether acute pain is associated with changes in behavioural proprioception measures. It included 27 studies involving 4,019 participants with experimentally induced or clinical pain lasting less than 3 months. Random-effects meta-analysis of left/right judgement tasks found that participants with acute clinical pain were less accurate when identifying images corresponding to the affected side (MD = -8.64, 95% CI = -16.93 to -0.34), without a corresponding change in response time. Other outcomes were synthesised descriptively and suggested joint- and angle-dependent impairments in position and movement sense.
Key findings
- In acute clinical pain, accuracy for identifying images corresponding to the affected side was lower (MD = -8.64, 95% CI = -16.93 to -0.34).
- The left/right judgement accuracy difference was not accompanied by a corresponding change in response time.
- Descriptive synthesis indicated that acute pain was associated with joint- and angle-dependent impairments in position and movement sense.
Why it matters
The findings suggest that proprioceptive changes can be present during acute pain, rather than being confined to persistent pain. Task-specific disruption of position, movement, or body-side processing may help explain early sensorimotor changes relevant to maladaptive movement. The review does not establish whether pain itself, tissue injury, inflammation, or other factors account for these changes.
What to keep in mind
Acute pain conditions were heterogeneous, and tissue injury or inflammation in some clinical and experimental models may independently affect proprioceptive performance. Most outcomes were synthesised descriptively because of study heterogeneity.