Pain
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Meta Analysis
Positive affect and chronic pain: a preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis.
Chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) is a significant health burden among adults. Standard behavioral therapies typically focus on targeting negative affect (NA) and yield only modest treatment effects. The aims of this study were to systematically review and investigate the association between positive affect (PA) and pain severity among adults with CNCP. ⋯ Subgroup analyses showed a significant effect for gender and marginally significant effects for age in studies that adjusted for NA. On average, effect sizes for observational studies were larger in studies with a higher proportion of female respondents and in studies that did not adjust for NA. Finally, larger effect sizes were found in intervention studies with older compared with younger samples.