Observational studyHuman brain mapping2015
Smoking increases risk of pain chronification through shared corticostriatal circuitry.
Observational study in Human brain mapping, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pain Interference and Intensity in Relation to Abstinence Outcomes Following a One-Session Personalized Feedback Smoking Cessation Digital-Intervention.Substance use & misuse · 2025Trial
- Global, regional, and national burden of low-back pain attributable to smoking from 1990 to 2021: An age-period-cohort and joinpoint analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.Tobacco induced diseases · 2026Article
- Multimorbidity: Addressing the Elephant in the Clinic Room.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The bidirectional relationship between pain and tobacco use: Insights from the longitudinal Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Trajectories of health conditions predict cardiovascular disease risk among middle-aged and older adults: a national cohort study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Familial effects account for association between chronic pain and past month smoking.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2024Article
- A Systematic Review of the Effects of Smoking on the Cardiovascular System and General Health.Cureus · 2023Review
- Consensus statement on smoking cessation in patients with pain.Journal of anesthesia · 2022Review
- Longitudinal associations between pain and substance use disorder treatment outcomes.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2022Observational
- Best Practices for Chiropractic Management of Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Clinical Practice Guideline.Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · 2020Article
- Associations between smoking status and bodily pain in a cross-sectional survey of UK respondents.Addictive behaviors · 2020Article
- Alcohol and Pain: A Translational Review of Preclinical and Clinical Findings to Inform Future Treatment Strategies.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2020Review
- Article
- Altered functional connectivity associated with time discounting in chronic pain.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Exploring the potential role of mesocorticolimbic circuitry in motivation for and adherence to chronic pain self-management interventions.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2019Review
- Role of the Prefrontal Cortex in Pain Processing.Molecular neurobiology · 2019Review
- Hippocampal morphology mediates biased memories of chronic pain.NeuroImage · 2018Article
- Exploring the definition of «acute» neck pain: a prospective cohort observational study comparing the outcomes of chiropractic patients with 0-2 weeks, 2-4 weeks and 4-12 weeks of symptoms.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2017Article
- Corticolimbic anatomical characteristics predetermine risk for chronic pain.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2016Observational
- What Risk Factors Are Associated With Musculoskeletal Injury in US Army Rangers? A Prospective Prognostic Study.Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Smoking is associated with increased incidence of chronic pain. However, the evidence is cross-sectional in nature, and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In a longitudinal observational study, we examined the relationship between smoking, transition to chronic pain, and brain physiology. In 160 subjects with subacute back pain (SBP: back pain lasting 4-12 weeks, and no prior back pain [BP] for at least 1 year) pain characteristics, smoking status, and brain functional properties were measured repeatedly over 1 year. Sixty-eight completed the study, subdivided into recovering (SBPr, n = 31) and persisting (SBPp, n = 37), based on >20% decrease in BP over the year. Thirty-two chronic back pain (CBP: duration > 5 years) and 35 healthy controls were similarly monitored. Smoking prevalence was higher in SBP and CBP but not related to intensity of BP. In SBP, smoking status at baseline was predictive of persistence of BP 1 year from symptom onset (differentiating SBPp and SBPr with 0.62 accuracy). Smoking status combined with affective properties of pain and medication use improved prediction accuracy (0.82). Mediation analysis indicated the prediction of BP persistence by smoking was largely due to synchrony of fMRI activity between two brain areas (nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex, NAc-mPFC). In SBP or CBP who ceased smoking strength of NAc-mPFC decreased from precessation to postcessation of smoking. We conclude that smoking increases risk of transitioning to CBP, an effect mediated by corticostriatal circuitry involved in addictive behavior and motivated learning.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.