{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"medRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T16:17:35Z","timestamp":1785428255549,"version":"3.56.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,24]]},"group-title":"Pain Medicine","reference-count":41,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,24]],"date-time":"2025-10-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1761264000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"award":["K43TW011442"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["K43TW011442"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/02xey9a22","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000065","name":"National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["K24NS126570"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["K24NS126570"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000065","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001321","name":"National Research Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["119238"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["119238"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001321","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001321","name":"National Research Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["Postgraduate scholarships to GJB and LM"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Postgraduate scholarships to GJB and LM"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001321","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["Postgraduate scholarship to GJB"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Postgraduate scholarship to GJB"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/05hq0zw41","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,18]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Longitudinal pain studies present an opportunity to understand intra-individual variations in pain. However, current methods to quantify the anatomical extent of pain fail to capture variations across multiple body sites over time. Our aims were to (1) describe patterns of intra-individual variation in pain sites over time, (2) develop a metric that quantifies intra-individual variation in pain sites over time, and (3) determine whether this metric is related to other indicators of pain burden.<\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>We used data from a longitudinal observational cohort of 72 participants (51 female; median (IQR) age 43 (37-51) years) living with virally suppressed HIV, who provided weekly reports of pain severity, pain site(s), and distress over 49 weeks.<\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Participant reports showed noteworthy intra-individual changes in pain sites over time. The pain sites variation metric, based on 727 consecutive reports from 53 participants, reflected intra-individual temporal variation in pain sites, and distinguished participants with consistent pain sites from participants with high temporal variation in pain sites. The metric was positively associated with the count of painful sites, and with emotional distress only when unadjusted for the count of painful sites.<\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Thus, using a longitudinal cohort, we developed a metric that quantifies individual temporal variation in pain sites and demonstrated that it relates more strongly to the count of painful sites than to distress. This metric provides an opportunity to study whether the number of, and variation in, pain sites contribute to pain burden and clinical outcomes.<\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1101\/2025.10.23.25337565","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,25]],"date-time":"2025-10-25T00:35:13Z","timestamp":1761352513000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Quantifying intra-individual variations in anatomical sites of pain in longitudinal studies"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5357-4062","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Victoria J","family":"Madden","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"African Pain Research Initiative, Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa"},{"name":"HIV Mental Health Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0008-5668-193X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gwen","family":"Arendse","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"African Pain Research Initiative, Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3103-5295","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peter","family":"Kamerman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Brain Function Research Group, Department of Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4522-5679","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gillian J","family":"Bedwell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"African Pain Research Initiative, Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0542-2221","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luyanduthando","family":"Mqadi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"African Pain Research Initiative, Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa"},{"name":"HIV Mental Health Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5654-0047","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Antonia","family":"Wadley","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Brain Function Research Group, Department of Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Robert R","family":"Edwards","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4260-1181","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"John A","family":"Joska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"HIV Mental Health Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4823-2487","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Romy","family":"Parker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"African Pain Research Initiative, Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026072014150663000_2025.10.23.25337565v2.1","unstructured":"Auguie, B. , Antonov, A. , & Auguie, M. 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