Earthquake aftermath
Dear Readers I have had many, many expressions of concern since the earthquake struck Christchurch again on Tuesday 22 February 2011. I’m glad to say that me and my family have escaped relatively unscathed from this traumatic event – I can’t say how badly hit my home city has been though. While the earthquake on … Read more
Friday Meditation
As you know, Friday is about getting ready for the weekend. Today I decided not to pass on some of the horrendous puns shared with me by one of my esteemed colleagues (although I may drop just one in because I can!). Instead I thought this poem is a chance to consider being ‘in the … Read more
More on choosing chronic pain questionnaires
Mood and anxiety – depression, anxiety and pain-specific anxiety were chosen because of their importance to outcomes, and the need to treat psychopathology Catastrophising – because this is thought to be one of the most important aspects of cognition that needs to be addressed Pain-related anxiety and avoidance – because this appears to be one … Read more
Choosing Chronic Pain Questionnaires
In my last post I started to discuss the questionnaire domains that can be used in a battery of questionnaires for chronic pain. Today it’s time to turn to the specific measures that we’ve chosen as part of a set that a group working across the public health system in New Zealand have selected. It’s … Read more
Choosing chronic pain questionnaires
Choosing a set of questionnaires for an assessment battery can be a task fraught with all kinds of traps, because if there is one thing bound to get clinical tongues flapping, it’s the idea that their favourite questionnaire will be left out of the mix! And to complicate matters for us Southern Hemispherians, most of … Read more
CBT approach in the real world
While there are many papers published about the outcomes from using a cognitive behavioural approach, there are very few describing the process ‘in the real world’. This leaves a gap for many clinicians who may read about it, maybe have training in delivering this type of intervention, or work in a team where it’s an … Read more
Occupational Therapy & the Cognitive Behavioural Approach For Pain Management – ii
In the first post on my commentary of Robinson, Kennedy and Harmon’s review of occupational therapy for chronic pain, I argued that they have misinterpreted the cognitive behavioural approach to pain management, and in particular, that they appear to hold an outmoded view of pain as either biological/organic or psychological, and refute the place of … Read more
