Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Chronic pain affects one in five people and persists because protective nociception is converted into maladaptive neural, immune and psychological states. This review aimed to consolidate mechanistic and clinical evidence to clarify that transformation and identify leverage points for durable relief.
METHODS: Following the Scale for the Assessment of Narrative Review Articles (SANRA) guidance, we conducted a narrative review of articles published 1 January 2000-30 June 2025 across PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Library, supplemented by grey literature. Eligible studies explored biological, immunological, genetic, epigenetic or psychosocial mechanisms or tested mechanism-targeted interventions. Data were thematically synthesised and appraised for methodological quality.
RESULTS: Convergent findings reveal a multistage cascade: peripheral sensitisation driven by aberrant ion channels and inflammatory mediators; spinal and supraspinal sensitisation sustained by glial activation and loss of inhibition; large-scale cortical and limbic reorganisation that embeds pain within memory and emotion circuits. Neuro-immune dialogue, microbiome dysbiosis, sex-specific responses and environment-induced epigenetic changes amplify these processes, while psychological stress and social adversity modulate their expression. Mapping these mechanisms to neuropathic, nociceptive and nociplastic syndromes highlights therapeutic windows exploited by emerging agents such as calcitonin-gene-related-peptide antibodies, chemogenetic nociceptor silencing, closed-loop neuromodulation, targeted cytokine blockade and microbiota modulation. Biomarker-informed precision approaches promise to replace empirical prescribing.
DISCUSSION: Synthesising cross-disciplinary evidence positions chronic pain as a systems disease requiring integrated, mechanism-based and person-centred care. Defining the shared biological scaffold clarifies why traditional symptom-focused treatments fail and outlines research priorities for disease-modifying analgesics and equitable delivery models.