Eva Ryan

Great work @eva_ryan_ et al on the latest publication in @PAINthejournal : journals.lww.com/pain/fullte… I am quite impressed with the lengths you all went through to assess causality of pain on mortality (e.g., propensity scoring). Big fan of the DAG too (below). It encampsualtes many of my own thoughts when examining the relationship of pain and mortality. Lots of work to be done here. For readers, here's a nice takeaway: "Overall, this study provides some evidence that pain itself, rather than the social or medical conditions that cause it, raises mortality risk. However, our findings are consistent with much or even perhaps all of the association being driven by upstream factors that increase the risk of both pain and mortality." Clinical takeaway: We have reason to believe that management of co-morbidities is necessary to effect the complex relationship between pain and mortality. Some of these variables necessitate us to reflect on how best to provide help (see socioeconomic factors on graph). #AcademicChatter #research