Friday funny!

The future of psychological management of chronic pain

One of my guru’s in chronic pain is Dr Lance McCracken from University of Bath.
I found this great powerpoint presentation, with his voiceover today, on the future of psychology in chronic pain. A great lecture that is well worth saving some time and listening to. Grab a couple of colleagues, a bottle of [...]

Back to work with pain

At last, something dear to my heart hits the news!
I dropped into MedWorm and skimmed the headlines just a moment or two ago, and found this!!!
It was entitled ‘Hope for low back pain sufferers’ and initially my heart sank - not another ‘we can fix you’ article promising much relief from pain but possibly not [...]

Advances in the science of acupuncture

Acupuncture has been used in China for thousands of years - it’s one of the first ‘alternative’ treatments requested by patients experiencing persistent pain, and one that has been receiving increasing attention from the scientific community as neurobiological research progresses.
This paper by Wang, Kain & White provides an overview of the state of [...]

Clear communication - an activity to encourage active listening

People who experience pain can have trouble saying what they want to happen - and difficulty hearing what other people really have to say. OK, I agree it’s a problem for us all - but

pain interferes with the capacity to attend to and process information, and
people with pain are often engaged in systems such [...]

A photograph!

I thought I’d share this one with you just for fun!

Shouldering on…

When did you last review your shoulder anatomy?
While looking for some information for a presentation I’m doing shortly on shoulder pain, I stumbled across this site - a real wealth of illustrated information on shoulder anatomy, pathology and therapy. It even includes a GREAT description of occupational therapy in shoulder rehabilitation! Now that’s [...]

Are you afraid to push your patients?

We have all heard about fear avoidance, or pain-related anxiety and avoidance in patients (Vlaeyen & Linton, 2000). This model of pain disability has become increasingly prominent over the past 10 years and research has demonstrated its effectiveness in predicting those who will develop long-standing disability, as well as providing amodel for treatment approaches [...]

This is a recording…this is a recording…

Preventing relapse has to be one of the most difficult parts of pain management - what do you do to keep someone going with their new skills while at the same time not allowing them to become dependent on your encouragement?
Some strategies have included spacing the final few sessions some time after the bulk of [...]

Motivational Interviewing in Health Care - book review

For me, motivational interviewing to help people change behaviour has been a great approach. The first book on using motivational interviewing for health conditions ‘Health behaviour change: A guide for practitioners’ by Rollnick, Mason and Butler (1999), is a wonderfully readable book, and inspired me to learn how to apply this non-confrontational approach to [...]