Very interesting comment by the GP in the panel discussion of how he now identifies a “good” physiotherapist. Enjoy…

 

A recent study at Johns Hopkins Medicine has shown that a person’s positive attitude may be just as effective as a painkiller if they can successfully put the pain out of their mind. The more optimistic outlook will also lead to better sleep.

Key Points:

• 80% of chronic pain sufferers experience sleep disturbance
• People with altered sleep patterns are more sensitive to pain
• There was a direct correlation between negative thinking about pain and poor sleep
• Cognitive behavioural therapy can be just as effective as pain medication
• You change the way you feel by changing the way you think

Read more…

History

Catherine is a 39 yr old business consultant who injured her back when emptying the dishwasher in 2008.  She has suffered 3 years of persistent right low back and right leg pain. The intensity of her pain was commonly 7/10 NRS and worsened by bending, sitting, home activities and gardening.

Catherine was able to flex to the knees only, when supporting her trunk weight with her hands. She had impulse pain but no neurological signs. Her range of lumbar extension was 50%. She was acutely tender to palpate over the low lumbar spine. Straight leg raise were bilaterally 80 degrees with no sensitisation.

Chiropractic manipulation and physiotherapy was of no lasting benefit.  She was not considered a surgical candidate by her medical team.

Diagnosis

Read more…

Unlike cancer or a broken leg, it’s sometimes difficult for someone who suffers from chronic pain to engender sympathy or empathy from those who are closest to them.

This article specificaly canvases relationships in the context of chronic pain and offers some very good advice.

From the 24th to 30th of July is the first National Pain Week. An initiative of Chronic Pain Australia, National Pain Week is not unlike Heart Week in May of each year where it provides a platform all over Australia to create awareness and shine a spotlight on the dilema of people living with persistent and debilitating pain.

The theme for National Pain Week is “Growing Hope For People In Pain”, and when we look back at some of the chronic pain case studies from the Lifestyle Pain Clinic where pain has been eliminated and function restored, there is good reason for hope.

The Lifestyle Therapies National Pain Week Event: Read more…

According to a new report into chronic pain in Australia:

• 29% of Australians say they experience chronic pain. With women (31%) more likely to experience chronic pain than men (26%).
• Among those who experience chronic pain, 47% say it is the result of a diagnosed condition such as arthritis, an inflammatory condition, multiple sclerosis or cancer.
• 5% of Australians with chronic pain have attempted to commit suicide because of their pain and a further 20% have thought about suicide.
• Chronic pain is reported across all age groups ranging from 19% of people aged 18-29, to 29% of those aged 66 and over.
• Forty per cent (40%) of people in pain say chronic pain has followed from a life event such as an operation or accident-related illness.
• 13% of people in pain report there is no identified medical reason for their pain.

Principal Physiotherapist, Dianne Hermans performing real time diagnostic ultrasound.

Not only that, but our health system often fails these patients, take the case of the Gold Coast patient who had to wait 4 years for an appointment or the recent report tabled in the WA parliament which expressed concern at over 22,000 West Australian’s addicted to opioids such as morphine, while having to wait 12 months to see a pain specialists.

Read more…

This lecture goes for 55min and if you suffer from or treat chronic or persistent pain, then it’s a must. Presented by Pain Physician, Dr Saifee Rashiq in Canada the lecture covers the biopsychosocial aspects of chronic pain and in particular describes the frustrations of sufferers with having a debilitating disease often without the concern and support from sufferers of conditions with clearly identifiable causes such as cancer.

One aspect that we found frustrating were the goals that Dr Rashiq has for his patients, which without the type of ground breaking therapies we use here at the Lifestyle Pain Clinic are highly commendable; they are to…

1. Keep the chronic pain sufferer off the operating table.
2. Keep them out of ER.
3. Never order new tests.
4. Keep them out of the psychiatric hospital.

It must be understood that by the time a patient gets to a pain physician there is almost nothing the patient hasn’t tried so they manage them as best they can. At the Lifestyle Pain Clinic we often get chronic pain sufferers AFTER they have been to the pain physician.

Read more…

It goes without saying that chronic and persistent pain is very complex with many factors involved. While the vast majority of chronic and persistent pain sufferers coming through the Lifestyle Pain Clinic make significant improvements in their quality of life, it’s always frustrating when some patients fail to respond to treatment. You can see just some of our chronic pain case studies here.

One of the things we see anecdotally is that smokers are often over represented in the patients who do not respond to treatment compared with the approximate 15% of the middle aged population who do smoke.

The following is an excellent article that covers some of the research into the links between cigarette smoking and chronic pain.

I have posted before on the best way to give up smoking here and have recently had two friends who have been long term 30+ year smokers who used exactly this technique to QUIT.

Professor Lorimer Moseley is a well regarded neuroscientist and physiotherapist. In this highly informative and entertaining lecture presentation, Lorimer explains how our perceptions and beliefs and even our social context can modulate (increase or decrease) our brain’s interpretation of pain.

Usually, when an injury heals over time the pain gradually reduces back to normal, but sometimes it persists and the longer it remains, the more sensitive we become to it. Our pain receptors and the pain pathway is said to be “sensitized” and this happens both peripherally at the site of pain and in chronic pain it even happens centrally at the spinal cord where pain is interpreted.
 

 
Professor Moseley is the co-author of the book, Explain Pain. At Lifestyle Therapies we stock books such as Explain Pain and will often loan it out to some patients as a tremendous resource to help chronic pain sufferers understand what they are experiencing which can be quite therapeutic. Well worth a watch.