Elephant in the room: how much pain is ok? If physiotherapy exercise RCTs do not report it, we will never answer the question

Smith, Benjamin E.; Riel, Henrik; Vicenzino, Bill; Littlewood, Chris

Abstract

Pain experience and response associated with exercise is likely important and may for some conditions be an essential part of recovery, but we lack data. The patient's pain experience is currently absent from the reporting guideline for exercise RCTs (CERT) and is frequently omitted from papers (figure 1). We respectfully recommend researchers explicitly state at what level pain during and after exercise was permitted and experienced (box 1).

Citation

Smith, B. E., Riel, H., Vicenzino, B., & Littlewood, C. (2020). Elephant in the room: how much pain is ok? If physiotherapy exercise RCTs do not report it, we will never answer the question. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 54(14), 821-822. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-101289

• Journal Article Type: Editorial
• Publication Date: 2020-07
• Deposit Date: Nov 27, 2024
• Journal: British Journal of Sports Medicine
• Print ISSN: 0306-3674
• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 54
• Issue: 14
• Pages: 821-822
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-101289
• Related Public URLs: https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/625171/