Chronic Pain
Chronic pain, or persistent pain, is pain that last for weeks, months or years.
For some, chronic pain is the result of an injury, like a sprained back, or an ongoing problem like arthritis. For others, chronic pain occurs in the absence of a past injury.
Many chronic pain conditions affect older adults. Common chronic pain complaints include headache, low back pain, arthritis pain, or neurogenic pain (pain resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves or to the central nervous system itself).
According to the Global Burden of Disease Study (2015), 1 in 4 people in the world struggle with some form of persistent pain. Historically, the treatment of persistent pain has been deeply rooted in a biomedical model focusing on tissues and tissue injury (Houben, Ostelo et al.2005; Henrotin, Cedraschi et al. 2006; Weiner 2008). Not only have these models shown limited efficacy in decreasing pain and disability, but may in fact have increased fear in patients, which in turn may increase their pain (Greene, Appel et al. 2005; Morr, Shanti et al. 2010). Current best evidence has shown that pain neuroscience educational (PNE) strategies utilizing neurobiology and neurophysiology are able to reduce pain, increase function, reduce fear and catastrophizing, and improve movement and change cognitions and brain activation during pain experiences (Louw 2016). PNE changes patient's beliefs regarding their pain, thus reducing the threat of pain.
I also like this link from Adrian Louw, who taught the course. It is patient-centered and explains why we do PNE: https://whyyouhurt.com/WYH-patient-portal.html#patient-video-1
To find out which locations offer this treatments, please visit our locations page.