Optimising physical rehabilitation for people with musculoskeletal pain

The World Health Organisation has recognised the importance of accessible and effective rehabilitation for people with musculoskeletal pain disorders. However, most current rehabilitation interventions provide only modest short-term benefits. In this article, we discuss opportunities for optimisation of rehabilitation to improve health outcomes for people with musculoskeletal pain. We argue that greater consideration for the mechanisms explaining how rehabilitation interventions work has the potential to improve intervention effectiveness, efficiency, and implementation. We also discuss improvements that could be made to identifying whom interventions are most beneficial for and the stratification of patients based on outcome risk, particularly regarding the management of patients deemed at high risk of poor recovery.