Review Article
Animal Models and Behavioral Assessment for Chronic Pain Diseases
He Xiaolan,
Wang Qun,
Gu Nan,
Lu Yan*
Issue:
Volume 2, Issue 4, December 2026
Pages:
217-236
Received:
23 September 2026
Accepted:
5 October 2026
Published:
21 October 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.ijpr.20260204.11
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Abstract: Chronic pain diseases (CPDs) affect approximately one in five adults worldwide, imposing a substantial socioeconomic burden and remaining a major unmet clinical need in pain medicine. Animal models of chronic pain are indispensable pre-clinical tools for dissecting the pathogenic mechanisms underlying diverse CPDs, screening novel analgesic candidates, and bridging fundamental laboratory discoveries and clinical pain management. An ideal experimental animal model should faithfully recapitulate the core clinical manifestations, pathological alterations, and persistent pain phenotypes observed in human CPD patients, while also enabling reproducible, standardized, and multidimensional behavioral assessment of pain hypersensitivity and spontaneous pain. Nevertheless, no single existing model can fully reproduce the full spectrum of clinical features of human CPDs, given the heterogeneous etiologies and complex biopsychosocial components of chronic pain. Therefore, investigators have to rationally select appropriate animal paradigms according to concrete scientific hypotheses and specific pain subtypes. This review systematically summarizes the detailed establishment workflows, typical pain?related behavioral phenotypes, major merits and inherent limitations, practical selection principles, as well as standardized behavioral evaluation approaches of widely-adopted animal models covering neuropathic pain, inflammatory pain, cancer pain, visceral pain and musculoskeletal pain. It is expected to offer practical reference information for pain researchers to reasonably choose and properly apply chronic-pain animal models in pre-clinical pain investigations, and ultimately facilitate the translational success of therapeutic approaches including pharmaceutical agents and interventional therapeutic techniques.
Abstract: Chronic pain diseases (CPDs) affect approximately one in five adults worldwide, imposing a substantial socioeconomic burden and remaining a major unmet clinical need in pain medicine. Animal models of chronic pain are indispensable pre-clinical tools for dissecting the pathogenic mechanisms underlying diverse CPDs, screening novel analgesic candida...
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