Definition
Fear-avoidance models explain how and why patients experiencing acute pain may become chronic sufferers and become trapped into a vicious circle of more pain and disability. Common in these models is their focus upon the role of pain-related fear (fear of pain, fear of movement/(re)injury) and dynamic learning processes (avoidance learning).
Characteristics
Pain is more than an unpleasant perceptual and emotional experience. It elicits innate responses and action tendencies that prepare and facilitate escape from pain (Eccleston and Crombez 1999). Pain is an experience that drives learning. The relevance of learning in chronic pain has been recognized early on in the field of pain (Fordyce 1976) and continues to play a role in more recent biopsychosocial accounts of chronic pain (Asmundson et al. 2004; Gatchel et al. 2007; Vlaeyen and Linton 2000).
Fordyce (1976) was the first to apply the...
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Goubert, L., Crombez, G., Vlaeyen, J.W.S. (2013). Muscle Pain, Fear-Avoidance Model. In: Gebhart, G.F., Schmidt, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_2531
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_2531
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