Digital approaches to chronic pain: A brief meta-review of eHealth interventions - Current evidence and future directions

Abstract

Digital approaches to chronic pain are emerging worldwide and rapidly gaining increased empirical support. This brief meta-review aims at providing a comprehensive overview of evidence and recommendations reported in recent reviews (2023–2024) on eHealth interventions for chronic pain promoting self-management. A systematic search provided 2041 records, of which 225 reviews were screened and 20 were synthesized. Existing reviews show that eHealth interventions for chronic pain are beneficial for patients, healthcare professionals, and society at large. However, long-term effects, change mechanisms, cost-effectiveness, and real-world utility are understudied. Moreover, quality, safety, relevance, and sustainable use are key targets for future research. Future researchers should utilize existing implementation frameworks and make explicit efforts to include diverse patient populations to advance digital approaches to chronic pain.