Contemporary Pain Neuroscience Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Pain Among University Students

Purpose: Healthcare education programs often inadequately address contemporary pain neuroscience, leaving future professionals ill-prepared to address the pervasive and biopsychosocial problem of chronic pain. Exploration of the level of understanding of contemporary pain neuroscience and the attitudes toward people in pain among university students may help educators identify appropriate roles for students in pain related interprofessional education events. This study assessed and compared knowledge of contemporary pain neuroscience and attitudes and beliefs toward individuals experiencing pain among university students.
Design: Cross-sectional observational study
Methods: 284 undergraduate and graduate, healthcare and non-healthcare students completed the revised Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire and the Health Care Providers’ Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale.
Results: Findings revealed a widespread lack of contemporary pain neuroscience knowledge and misinformed attitudes and beliefs about individuals in pain across most groups. Physical Therapy students demonstrated significantly greater contemporary pain neuroscience knowledge and more informed attitudes and beliefs compared to all non-physical therapy healthcare and non-healthcare students. Surprisingly, non-healthcare students displayed comparable contemporary pain neuroscience to healthcare undergraduate and non-physical therapy graduate students, further highlighting gaps in healthcare curricula. Attitudes and beliefs toward individuals in pain were deficient among non-physical therapy healthcare majors and non-healthcare students alike.
Conclusions: These results underscore the need for comprehensive, contemporary pain neuroscience education across healthcare disciplines.