Imaging Report Language and Patient-Reported Pain: A Review of the Randomised and Experimental Evidence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22549098Keywords:
Radiology reporting, Patient communication, Pain catastrophising, Low back pain, Incidental findings, Health communicationAbstract
Radiological imaging is a routine part of musculoskeletal pain assessment, yet the language used to
report incidental and degenerative findings appears to independently shape patient-reported pain, worry,
and catastrophising, largely irrespective of the underlying pathology described. Randomised and
experimental studies manipulating report wording, and studies documenting the very high prevalence of
incidental degenerative findings in asymptomatic adults, together suggest that unmediated technical
language can generate or amplify distress that structured clinical-correlation wording or accompanying
clinician explanation can meaningfully reduce. This review synthesises the experimental, randomised
trial, and prevalence literature relevant to imaging report language and patient-reported pain,
examining what the evidence supports about how radiological findings should be communicated.
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