Pain during physical examination of a healing upper extremity fracture.

The evidence that symptom intensity and magnitude of limitations correlate with thoughts and emotions means that subjective signs, such as pain with physical examination, reflect both physical and mental health. During a 1-month evaluation of a rapidly healing upper extremity fracture with no risk of nonunion, 117 people completed measures of adaptiveness to pain and pain during the physical examination. Greater pain during examination correlated with less adaptive responses to pain and older age. This finding raises questions about using tenderness to assess fracture union.Level of evidence: II.