I know, it’s Monday and such cheer about work should be reserved for people with no life – but helping people return to work has been and still is one of my favourite parts of pain management. A pity that work rehabilitation has become somewhat far removed from pain management as it is practiced in … Read more... Ammendolia, C., Cassidy, D., Steensta, I., Sokla
5 Vote(s)
June 28, 2010
Hi ho! Hi Ho! It’s off to work we go!
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June 14, 2010
February 24, 2010
Low back pain: unfit? just not doing much? or something else
For as long as I’ve been working in pain management (and probably well before), I’ve heard patients being described as ‘deconditioned’. From what we know about the effects of staying in bed because of illness or injury, it makes sense to think that if a person does very little they will become unfit. [...]... Verbunt JA, Smeets RJ, & Wittink HM. (2010) Cause or ef
17 Vote(s)
17 Vote(s)
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February 18, 2010
Do patients take their medications?
I don’t often write about medications, not because I don’t believe in their use but because that’s not my focus. However, just to put the record straight: medications and medical management of chronic pain has a place in the model of pain management I use. After all, it is the ‘bio-psychosocial’ model, not the psychosocial [...]... Broekmans S, Dobbels F, M
6 Vote(s)
6 Vote(s)
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February 9, 2010
How do you establish who will do well with pain management?
Some people just won’t do well with pain management. In just the same way as a surgeon selects good candidates for surgery, so people need to be selected for self management. Although there is some truth that getting even a little pain management is good for everyone, the cost of doing so in staff energy [...]... Foster, N., Thomas, E., Bishop, A., Dunn, K., & Main, C. (2009) Dist
7 Vote(s)
7 Vote(s)
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February 3, 2010
A wish list for a pain management programme
As I review the last few people I’ve had the privilege to assess, I can see numerous factors that have lead them down the road to chronic disability from their persistent pain. One of the most common would have to be multiple medical assessments with medical management that has failed to address the person’s disability, [...]... Williams, A., & Potts, H. (2010) Group membersh
15 Vote(s)
15 Vote(s)
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January 13, 2010
Attention Please! Attention management for chronic pain
A debate that’s been going on for some time is the role of ‘distraction’ in pain management. So many of the people I see have told me they ‘just ignore’ the pain, or ‘I try to distract myself’, or similar, that there isn’t much doubt to me that people habitually use attention management as a [...]... Elomaa, M., de C. Williams, A., & Kalso,
18 Vote(s)
18 Vote(s)
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December 21, 2009
Getting through it
Some of you may know that I’ve just had surgery, and I’m gently recovering from the comfort of my own home over the next few weeks. Posts on here will be intermittent but I find myself considering aspects of pain management from a ‘patient’s’ perspective today as it’s about 5 days since surgery and my [...]... Leegaard, M., Nåden, D., & Fagermoen, M. (
7 Vote(s)
7 Vote(s)
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December 14, 2009
…but I’m not ready to stop looking for a cure
People come to pain management with a wide range of attitudes and expectations. Over the past few months I’ve been reviewing the ‘goals’ that people write in their pre-appointment psychometric questionnaires, and almost without exception people write ‘Reduce my pain’ or ‘Fix my pain’. While they’ll also write down ‘do more’, ‘ret
5 Vote(s)
5 Vote(s)
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November 12, 2009
Brief Training In Meditation May Help In Pain Management
Living with pain is stressful, but a surprisingly short investment of time in mental training can help you cope. A new study examining the perception of pain and the effects of various mental training techniques has found that relatively short and simple mindfulness meditation training can have a significant positive effect on pain management.
10 Vote(s)
10 Vote(s)
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