ArticleDiagnostics (Basel, Switzerland)2022
Understanding Sensitization, Cognitive and Neuropathic Associated Mechanisms behind Post-COVID Pain: A Network Analysis.
Article in Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Understanding the role of psychological factors in long COVID: a network analysis approach.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- Peak alpha frequency is associated with pain severity in Long COVID patients with new-onset chronic pain.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Association Between Nociplastic Pain Criteria and Clinical and Physiological Features in Temporomandibular Disorders: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Natural language processing reveals network structure of pain communication in social media using discrete mathematical analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide-Induced Central Sensitization: A Hypothesis for Long COVID Symptoms.Medical hypotheses · 2025Article
- Early Effects of a Pain-Informed Movement Program in Patients with Post-COVID-19 Condition Experiencing Persistent Pain: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- The incidence, characteristics, impact and risk factors of post-COVID chronic pain in Thailand: A single-center cross-sectional study.PloS one · 2024Article
- Communicating pain: emerging axonal signaling in peripheral neuropathic pain.Frontiers in neuroanatomy · 2024Review
- Post-COVID Patients With New-Onset Chronic Pain 2 Years After Infection: Cross-Sectional Study.Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses · 2023Article
- Phenotyping Post-COVID Pain as a Nociceptive, Neuropathic, or Nociplastic Pain Condition.Biomedicines · 2022Review
- Network Analysis Reveals That Headache-Related, Psychological and Psycho-Physical Outcomes Represent Different Aspects in Women with Migraine.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Health-related quality of life in persons post-COVID-19 infection in comparison to normative controls and chronic pain patients.Frontiers in public health · 2022Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
This study aimed to describe a network including demographic, sensory-related, psychological/cognitive and other variables in individuals with post-COVID pain after hospitalization. Demographic (i.e., age, height, weight, months with symptoms), sensory-related (Central Sensitization Inventory -CSI-, Self-Report Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms -S-LANSS-, PainDETECT), psychological/cognitive (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale -HADS-A/HADS-D-, Pain Catastrophizing Scale -PCS-, Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia -TSK-11-) and other (sleep quality and health-related quality of life -EQ/5D/5L) variables were collected in 146 COVID-19 survivors with post-COVID pain. A network analysis was conducted to quantify the adjusted correlations between the modelled variables, and to assess their centrality indices (i.e., the connectivity with other symptoms in the network and the importance in the system modelled as network). The network revealed associations between sensory-related and psychological/cognitive variables. PainDETECT was associated with S-LANSS (ρ: 0.388) and CSI (ρ: 0.207). Further, CSI was associated with HADS-A (ρ: 0.269), TSK-11 (ρ: 0.165) and female gender (ρ: 0.413). As expected, HADS-A was associated with HADS-D (ρ: 0.598) and TSK-11 with PCS (ρ: 0.405). The only negative association was between sleep quality and EQ-5D-5L (ρ: -0.162). Gender was the node showing the highest strength, closeness, and betweenness centralities. In addition, CSI was the node with the second highest closeness and betweenness centralities, whereas HADS-D was the node with the second highest strength centrality. This is the first study applying a network analysis for phenotyping post-COVID pain. Our findings support a model where sensitization-associated symptoms, neuropathic phenotype, and psychological aspects are connected, reflecting post-COVID pain as a nociplastic pain condition. In addition, post-COVID pain is gender dependent since female sex plays a relevant role. Clinical implications of current findings, e.g., developing treatments targeting these mechanisms, are discussed.
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