Special Issue

Advancing Yoga Research for Chronic Pain: Therapeutic Innovation, Prevention of Pain Chronicity, and Mechanisms

Submission Deadline: May 31, 2027 (Open) Submit Now

Guest Editor

Kathryn Curtis, PhD

Comprehensive Integrated Pain Program, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada

Website | E-Mail

Research Interests: Yoga; mindfulness; chronic pain; limited mobility; pain processing

About This Topic

Yoga is a complementary and integrative mind-body practice dating back to 3000 BC. Over the past few decades, yoga has been evaluated as a therapeutic intervention for an abundance of health conditions, including chronic pain, with benefits reported across multiple symptom categories. Although yoga is typically associated with its physical postures (āsana), there are additional limbs (breathing practices (prāṇāyāma), concentration (dhārana), and meditation (dhyāna)) which have been implemented to varying degrees across yoga research trials and which are relevant for chronic pain.

The focus of this special issue is to advance scholarship on the innovative application of yoga as a treatment for individuals with chronic pain and as a tool for the prevention of chronic pain. Prioritized areas of focus are: randomized clinical trials evaluating yoga for diverse chronic pain conditions and limited mobility; yoga for peri-surgical populations; yoga interventions that are aimed at reducing the transition from acute to chronic pain; studies implementing methodological rigor; studies evaluating the impact of yoga on pain-related psychological constructs; and mechanisms and mediators of change, such as psychological, mindfulness-based, biological, and neurophysiological mechanisms using experimental pain models, quantitative sensory testing, neuroimaging, biomarker-based approaches, and autonomic nervous system measures. Original empirical research, systematic or scoping reviews, meta-analyses, conceptual and theoretical papers, and case studies will be considered.

OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine is delighted to invite submissions for a special issue on "Advancing yoga research for chronic pain: Therapeutic innovation, prevention of pain chronicity, and mechanisms."

Keywords

Yoga; chronic pain; peri-surgical populations; chronic pain prevention; pain processing

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted through the LIDSEN Submission System. Detailed information on manuscript preparation and submission is available in the Instructions for Authors. All submitted articles will be thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process and will be processed following the Editorial Process and Quality Control policy. Upon acceptance, the article will be immediately published in a regular issue of the journal and will be listed together on the special issue website, with a label that the article belongs to the Special Issue. LIDSEN distributes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License in an open-access model. The authors own the copyright to the article, and the article can be free to access, distribute, and reuse provided that the original work is correctly cited.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). Research articles and review articles are highly invited. Authors are encouraged to send the tentative title and abstract of the planned paper to the Editorial Office (icm@lidsen.com) for record. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office.

Welcome your submission!