Why does society fight the idea that pain is an experience and not a thing?
For one, I often think it may have something to do with control. For the most part, I think many would agree that we like to make sense of everything around us and have control over it. This is how we feel most at ease…
Align 2019 in Denver was another great experience with almost 400 health care providers networking and learning more about pain. The presentations had nugget after nugget of great information to advance our care for those with pain. If you did not make it, check out #align2019 for a recap of some of the great tweets. Also consider coming next year…
Twitter was buzzing a few days ago with the posting of a new paper that came out on November 5th in JAMA Neurology. Adrian Traeger and his fellow collaborators published an excellent study looking into the effects of pain education for patients with acute low back pain. It was interesting to read the replies and repost of the article on…
The 2018 Align Conference was packed with great presentations, but my favorite was “Pain Mechanisms: The Key to Unlocking Better Pain Solutions” by ISPI’s Steve Schmidt. This fantastic talk explored subgroups of pain mechanisms; how sensory profiling can point toward understanding an individual’s unique pain phenotype; and examined how a biopsychosocial phenotype might look. It is said that…
The recent “what word is it” sound debate of Yanny vs. Laurel is a perfect example of how perceptual experiences are uniquely individual.
Which sound did you hear? I have heard both at different times on different devices on different websites. Conversations like this happen from time to time and almost always create dividing opinions. (Here are a few other…
I can remember the day that I graduated from physical therapy school 20 years ago. I was clear in my goals for my career. I wanted to become an orthopedic manual therapist. I figured I would be able to “fix” everything that came into the clinic, and all of my patients would be extremely satisfied. Then that first day happened…
It has been reported recently that over 100 million people in the US are currently struggling with persistent pain. The US figures show us that 1 in 4 people in the US are suffering with persistent pain. The global trend is 1 in 5.
Let that sink in for a moment as a clinician… 20% of the world’s population…
Have you ever played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?
It’s a game based on the “six degrees of separation” concept, which contends that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance-links apart. Experiments to test this hypothesis have deemed it an “academic urban myth,” but it can be fun to see social connections and realize our…
One question that I routinely encounter from rehab professionals as I teach therapeutic neuroscience education across the country is this: “PNE is such great stuff! But HOW do we get EVERYONE in our facility on board?” That is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? All too often we face frustration born out of our own facility or system’s…
Implementing pain neuroscience education (PNE) into practice has revolutionized my career. The ability to re-frame a patient’s pain experience with modern explanations of pain, built on a biopsychosocial foundation, has been a professional game changer. Though this shift has not occurred without bumps and bruises along the way. While I have used PNE to help countless people shift…