Footnotes

• Contributors MKB and BMW wrote the first draft of the manuscript. GLM and JHM contributed importantly to the manuscript for intellectual content and style. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

• Funding MKB is supported by an Australian Research Training Program Scholarship, a UNSW Research Excellence Award and a NeuRA PhD Candidature Supplementary Scholarship. JHM is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia project grants ID1087045 and ID1047827. GLM is supported by an NHMRC Principal Research Fellowship, ID1061279. The aforementioned funding bodies and organisations had no role in the conception or writing of the manuscript.

• Competing interests MKB received conference travel support from the Chiropractors' Association of Australia to speak about pain neuroscience and rehabilitation. GLM receives speaker’s fees for lectures on pain and rehabilitation. GLM received payment for contributions to Pfizer’s web-based pain education strategy; and has received support from Kaiser Permanente (USA), workers’ compensation boards in Australia, North America and Europe, Noigroup Australasia, Agile Physiotherapy (USA), Results Physiotherapy (USA), the IOC, the Arsenal Football Club, and the Port Adelaide Football Club. GLM receives royalties for books about pain and rehabilitation.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.