Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40893407›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland)2025

An integral vision of pain and its persistence: a whole-person, whole-system, salutogenic perspective.

Mark I Johnson

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Healing vs. hurting words: the power of language in pain perception-a narrative review.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026
    Review
  3. Exploring magical thinking in the context of pain.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Mark I JohnsonCentre for Pain Research, School of Health, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, United Kingdom.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Persistent pain remains a significant global health challenge, with prevailing biomedical and biopsychosocial models often falling short in capturing its full complexity. These models frequently lack conceptual and contextual coherence, overlooking the deeply subjective, cultural, and systemic dimensions of pain. As a result, care can become fragmented and suboptimal. This perspective article introduces an integral vision of pain, grounded in the All Quadrants, All Levels (AQAL) framework, which offers a multidimensional approach that integrates subjective experience, objective mechanisms, cultural meaning, spiritual perspectives, and systemic structures. The article outlines how a simplified AQAL framework can serve as a heuristic tool to synthesise individual and collective dynamics-including psychological development and socio-environmental conditions-thereby informing a more comprehensive understanding of pain and its persistence. This includes recognising the role of painogenic environments and the impact of evolutionary mismatch in shaping pain experiences. This integral perspective reframes persistent pain within a salutogenic social model of health, adopting a whole-person, whole-system approach that supports the co-creation of compassionate, community-driven, and context-sensitive care. Ultimately, it reconceptualises persistent pain not merely as a disease state or clinical symptom, but as a dynamic, relational, and meaning-laden experience embedded within the evolving journey of life. This integral vision challenges reductionist paradigms, advancing a more coherent, salutogenic, and humanistic model for understanding and addressing persistent pain.

Indexed as

All Quadrants All Levels (AQAL) frameworkcommunityevolutionary-mismatchintegral theoryintegrativepainpainogenic environmentsalutogenic

Identifiers

PMID40893407
PMCPMC12391091

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.