REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Precision Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1659490
This article is part of the Research TopicMixed Pain: A challenging diseaseView all 4 articles
Mixed Pain: Clinical Practice Recommendations
Provisionally accepted- 1Fondazione Paolo Procacci, Rome, Italy
- 2Universita del Salento, Lecce, Italy
- 3Pain Management Unit, Hospital Obrero, La Paz, Bolivia, La Paz, Bolivia
- 4Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
- 5Colsubsidio Health Research Center. Bogotá, Colombia, Bogotà, Colombia
- 6Pain Center, São Luis Hospital, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sao Paulo, Brazil
- 7Department of Anesthesia, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, Cairo, Egypt
- 8Pain Management Center, University of New York, New York, United States
- 9Louisiana State University Shreveport, Shreveport, United States
- 10Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France
- 11Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Translational Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Mixed pain, defined by the concurrent involvement of nociceptive, neuropathic, and sometimes nociplastic mechanisms, poses a significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenge within modern pain medicine. This complex pain phenotype is increasingly recognized as a prevalent and burdensome clinical entity, yet it remains substantially underdiagnosed and sub-optimally managed across diverse healthcare settings. Epidemiological data indicate that mixed pain affects a substantial proportion of patients with chronic pain syndromes and is consistently associated with more severe symptomatology, prolonged pain duration, functional impairment, diminished quality of life, and escalated healthcare resource utilization compared to pain of a single mechanism. In response to this unmet clinical need, the present recommendations aim to provide a structured, evidence-informed framework for the diagnosis and management of mixed pain. Developed through a rigorous process involving systematic literature review and multidisciplinary expert consensus, this document emphasizes the importance of mechanism-based therapeutic strategies tailored to the individual patient's pain profile. Central to the approach is the implementation of multimodal and interdisciplinary care models that address the biological, psychological, and functional dimensions of mixed pain. These recommendations are intended for a broad spectrum of healthcare professionals, including primary care physicians, pain specialists, neurologists, oncologists, physiatrists, nurses, pharmacists, physical and occupational therapists, and clinical psychologists. The target population encompasses patients affected by mixed pain conditions such as chronic low back pain with radiculopathy, cancer-related pain, persistent postsurgical pain, and osteoarthritis complicated by central sensitization. By facilitating accurate diagnosis and integrated treatment planning, these recommendations seek to advance clinical practice, reduce the burden of mixed pain, and enhance patient-centered outcomes. This guidance aims to transform mixed pain care by promoting mechanism-based, multidisciplinary strategies with direct clinical applicability.
Keywords: Mixed pain, Multimodal analgesia, neuropathic pain, Nociceptive Pain, Nociplastic pain, Interdisciplinary care, Pain Management
Received: 04 Jul 2025; Accepted: 09 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Varrassi, Farì, Narvaez Tamayo, Gomez, Guerrero Liñeiro, Pereira, Samy Aziz, Gharibo, Kaye, Garcia-Larrea and Leoni. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Giustino Varrassi, giuvarr@gmail.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.