Background and Aims Background and aims: Positive psychology and related interventions in chronic pain management is still a little investigated topic. The objective of this review is to present relevant research findings regarding studies examining adult patients and the influence of intervention programs based on the principles of positive psychology on pain perception.

Methods A literature search of the electronic databases PubMed-MEDLINE, EMBASE and Google Scholar was performed to identify studies published before December 2021. Both quantitative and qualitative research articles were included.

Results All of the studies indicated a beneficial impact of interventions that are based on the principles of positive psychology on pain management, and more specifically changes were found after the implemention of such interventions on depressive symptoms and negative affect, while more positive affect was present, a finding that could be incorporated in clinical practice.

Conclusions Although further analysis and data collection in more homogeneous samples is required, these results support a beneficial influence of positive psychology interventions on pain intensity. Future research should further investigate if the cognitive and neuropsychological impairments of patients with different types of diseases and demographic characteristics can also be influenced by exposure to positive psychology interventions in diverse cultural settings.