TY - JOUR
AU - E. d'Incau
AU - C. M. Kaplan
AU - J. A. Micoulaud-Franchi
AU - C. Veasley
AU - R. Ohrbach
A1 - 
AB - Chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs) refer to a set of chronic pain disorders that frequently co-occur and may involve partially overlapping mechanisms. The U.S. National Institutes of Health currently recognizes ten COPCs: fibromyalgia, painful temporomandibular disorders, chronic low back pain, chronic migraine headache, chronic tension-type headache, irritable bowel syndrome, endometriosis, interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome, vulvodynia, and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. When multiple COPCs coexist, they are associated with a disproportionate multimorbidity burden, including greater pain, poorer psychological well-being, functional limitations, disability, fatigue, sleep disturbances, diminished quality of life, and increased healthcare utilization. Despite their impact, COPCs remain under-recognized, underdiagnosed, and undertreated. Combining structured literature searches and citation tracking with narrative syntheses, this review examines comorbid relationships, the burden of multimorbidity, and potentially overlapping nociplastic mechanisms. By adopting a multimorbidity-based perspective rather than a one-disease, one-treatment approach, it highlights barriers to care-including limited clinical awareness, under-recognition of additional COPCs, limited mechanistic understanding, and fragmented care-and proposes integrated strategies emphasizing prevention, systematic screening, mechanism-informed assessment, and coordinated, patient-centered multimodal management.
AD - SANPSY, CNRS, UMR 6033, CHU de Bordeaux, Place Amélie Raba Léon, University of Bordeaux, F-33000 Bordeaux, France.; Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.; Chronic Pain Research Alliance, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.; Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences, School of Dental Medicine, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.
AN - 42356003
BT - J Clin Med
C5 - Medically Unexplained Symptoms
CP - 12
DA - 06/2026
DO - 10.3390/jcm15124835
DP - NLM
ET - 20260622
IS - 12
JF - J Clin Med
LA - eng
N2 - Chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs) refer to a set of chronic pain disorders that frequently co-occur and may involve partially overlapping mechanisms. The U.S. National Institutes of Health currently recognizes ten COPCs: fibromyalgia, painful temporomandibular disorders, chronic low back pain, chronic migraine headache, chronic tension-type headache, irritable bowel syndrome, endometriosis, interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome, vulvodynia, and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. When multiple COPCs coexist, they are associated with a disproportionate multimorbidity burden, including greater pain, poorer psychological well-being, functional limitations, disability, fatigue, sleep disturbances, diminished quality of life, and increased healthcare utilization. Despite their impact, COPCs remain under-recognized, underdiagnosed, and undertreated. Combining structured literature searches and citation tracking with narrative syntheses, this review examines comorbid relationships, the burden of multimorbidity, and potentially overlapping nociplastic mechanisms. By adopting a multimorbidity-based perspective rather than a one-disease, one-treatment approach, it highlights barriers to care-including limited clinical awareness, under-recognition of additional COPCs, limited mechanistic understanding, and fragmented care-and proposes integrated strategies emphasizing prevention, systematic screening, mechanism-informed assessment, and coordinated, patient-centered multimodal management.
PY - 2026
SN - 2077-0383 (Print); 2077-0383
ST - Multimorbidity in Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions: From Burden to Integrated Care
T1 - Multimorbidity in Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions: From Burden to Integrated Care
T2 - J Clin Med
TI - Multimorbidity in Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions: From Burden to Integrated Care
U1 - Medically Unexplained Symptoms
U3 - 10.3390/jcm15124835
VL - 15
VO - 2077-0383 (Print); 2077-0383
Y1 - 2026
ER -