Reconfiguring the biomedical dominance of pain: time for alternative perspectives from health promotion?

Strategies to reduce the burden of persistent pain in society are rooted in a biomedical paradigm. These strategies are located downstream, managing persistent pain once it has become a problem. Upstream activities that create social conditions to promote health and well-being are likely to help, yet health promotion discourse and research are lacking in pain literature. In this article, we argue that the subjective nature of pain has not sat comfortably with the objective nature of medical practice. We argue that the dominance of the biomedical paradigm, with a simplistic 'bottom-up' model of pain being an inevitable consequence of tissue damage, has been detrimental to the health and well-being of people living with persistent pain. Evidence from neuroscience suggests that bodily pain emerges as a perceptual inference based on a wide variety of contextual inputs to the brain. We argue that this supports community, societal and environmental solutions to facilitate whole-person care. We call for more salutogenic orientations to understand how people living with persistent pain can continue to flourish and function with good health. We suggest a need for 'upstream' solutions using community-based approaches to address cultural, environmental, economic and social determinants of health, guided by principles of equity, civil society and social justice. As a starting point, we recommend appraising the ways human society appreciates the aetiology, actions and solutions towards alleviating persistent pain.Lay Summary Persistent pain is a major healthcare challenge. Most approaches to tackle pain involve medical treatments to relieve pain once it has become a problem. There has been little research into the role of activities that promote health and well-being on pain. We argue that there needs to be more research on how people living with persistent pain can continue to flourish and function with good health. We suggest that there needs to be more attention given to health promotion and community-based approaches to tackle persistent pain and that more research is needed on cultural, environmental, economic and social factors that influence pain.