Research into the role of the brain in chronic pain
When little can be done to help make stressful experiences more tolerable, age-old adages encourage us to just “grin and bear it.” Although smiling might appear too simple to be an effective solution, new research suggests that smiling through stressful situations does have a beneficial impact on physical health.In our recently published … [Read more...]
This post is a republishing of a recent article in The Conversation by Michael Vagg:The announcement on Friday last week that pregabalin (Lyrica) made it onto the Pharmacutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is a huge relief for sufferers of chronic nerve pain.It also means that the true cost of providing appropriate care to chronic pain … [Read more...]
Jack Nicklaus is on the short list of the greatest golfers of all time, and I love his evocative quote, “before every shot, I go to the movies.” He never hits the ball (not even in practice) without first having a very sharp, focused picture of it in his head. He constructs a detailed image of the green, every dimple on the ball, the trajectory … [Read more...]
When healthy people start to exercise, the brain activates powerful descending analgesic systems (pain inhibitory actions). This leads to increased pain thresholds during exercise, making it less likely that we will feel pain during, or immediately following, exercise. However, brain-orchestrated analgesia or pain inhibition is often impaired in … [Read more...]
While pain may be a universal experience, one experience that can often plague and frustrate everyone is that time when something works one moment but then all of a sudden doesn’t work the next. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing this you’ll find that it applies to many things in life whether it be the temperamental office … [Read more...]
At the recent World Congress on Pain, there were enough exhibition stands to keep even the most mischievous amused. One of the most mischievous is Sarah Haag. Here she gives an account of the first of her investigations.....On day 2 of the biannual IASP conference in Milan, I decided to try out the latest and greatest in headache management … [Read more...]
Every patient you see is likely to have a pelvis. Roughly 1/4 of women will have had some pelvic pain in the course of sport, childbirth, sex or urinating. Men are harder to pin down for exact numbers as it gets poorly diagnosed along with back pain and prostate problems but they have pelvic pain as well. Jane Bowering did a great job … [Read more...]
Opioids. We all know what they are and that there are a lot of them going around, but it wasn’t until I was asked to write this blog on the information overloading review by Manchikanti and friends (2010) that I realised quite the extent. And to tell you the truth, it’s painfully scary!In a nutshell, well over half of the review pumped out … [Read more...]
In my general physiotherapy practice about one in five patients come with complex pain, disability and loss. I love sorting out the pieces of the puzzle that creates these situations. A challenge is not to get lost amongst all the pieces. So I take the patient on a journey of discovery as I find all the pieces, so I can then help them see their … [Read more...]
The problem Back pain is something most of us will suffer at some point in our life. The good news is that we now understand a lot about how to effectively manage back pain. Unfortunately it is taking a while for that evidence to reach practice.Most Australians who self-manage their back pain or seek care from a GP do not receive effective … [Read more...]
Ever put down a copy of Explain Pain, or some other highly valuable text, and asked 'So how do I integrate all this stuff when I assess a patient and plan treatment?' You might have felt exasperated after reading yet another article on pain mechanisms, or central sensitisation, or cortical reorganisation, and said to yourself 'yes but how do I … [Read more...]
A Learning Theory Perspective on Pain-related Fear in Chronic Pain Every saga has a sequel – well in the previous blog post on learning and pain-related fear in chronic pain, I explained how pain-related fear can be acquired through associative learning, that is, the systematic pairing of a neutral movement (conditioned stimulus = CS) with a … [Read more...]
A Learning Theory Perspective on Pain-related Fear in Chronic Pain There is no doubt that there is heaps of wisdom in the Star Wars saga. For example, Master Yoda said once: “Fear is the path to the dark side”. When it comes to chronic pain, and in particular how acute pain might turn into chronic pain, Yoda’s quote is spot on! … [Read more...]
Genesis: To cut a very long story short, Smudj was born from a very dark period in my life. So dark that not a pin prick of light could be seen. I was on the knife edge of suicidal, wanting to be sliced into oblivion.Close to a year before Smudj smeared its way on my page, my body had developed an autoimmune syndrome called Fibromyalgia. It … [Read more...]
I know that many of you out there are 'in the 'hood' with respect to writing and reviewing manuscripts. For the rest of you, here are some reviews we got on a paper concerning the development of CRPS. I have had to remove some bits because they give away the journal and the study, which we will resubmit somewhere else. However, I think they are … [Read more...]
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