Papers of the Week

Decades of research have convincingly shown, that fear of pain and pain-related avoidance behavior are important precursors of disability in daily life. Physical underuse as a consequence of avoidance, however, cannot not be blamed for chronic disability in all patients, a contrasting behavior, pain-related dysfunctional endurance in a task and overactivity, have to be considered. Currently there is a need to better understand psychological determinants of overactivity, dysfunctional endurance and neuro-biomechanical consequences.