Highlights
- •Early life experiences including parent-child relationships influence emotional development
- •Postnatal leave is a social policy that could support early life relationships
- •Supporting psychological health in early life could impact back pain in later life
- •We suggest research directions to reduce the burden of low back pain in future generations
Abstract
Chronic low back pain is difficult to treat and despite increased spending on health
services, clinical outcomes for people with low back pain have not improved. Innovative,
large scale initiatives seem necessary to stem the cost of low back pain. Psychological
health contributes to the development and persistence of chronic low back pain and
psychological interventions are important in the management of low back pain. Given
the contribution of psychological health to low back pain development and management,
it raises the question; can we support psychological health in later life by bolstering
emotional development in early life, and reduce the burden of this common condition?
Positive early life experiences, including those induced by extended paid postnatal
leave, could bolster emotional development and support the psychological health necessary
to manage low back pain in later life. We present the current state of evidence demonstrating
the potential value of increasing support for parent-child relationships in early
life to reduce the burden of low back pain in future generations. The current evidence
is limited to cross-sectional associations, but strong preclinical data clearly shows
the potential negative impacts of maternal separation on rodent pup health that compels
consideration in human populations.
Perspective
The benefits stemming from enhanced child development include stable emotional foundations,
possibly improving psychological health and low back pain management in the future.
This perspective raises questions for future studies – within the context of low back
pain, what ingredients bolster stable psychological health? And are these ingredients
influenced by postnatal leave?
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 7,
2023
Received in revised form:
January 2,
2023
Received:
September 14,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc.
