6 The Use of Event-Related Potentials in Chronic Back Pain Patients

Chronic back pain is one of the most common pain syndromes, with a lifetime incidence of 60% to 90%. An important question in the field of chronic pain is how acute pain transits to a chronic pain state: why do some persons develop chronic pain while others do not? Approximately 10% to 20% of patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) still have persisting complaints after 6 weeks (Bekkering et al., 2003). If more insight is gained into chronification mechanisms and, as a consequence, the ability to predict which individual with acute pain develops chronic pain, it may become possible to intervene in the process at an early stage.