This post was originally published on Medium on 6th February 2018 (link) and is reposted here with the kind permission of Tom Jesson. A scientific revolution shows us that for centuries we have misunderstood pain. I am a Physiotherapist. Almost every person I see in clinic is in pain, and most already have an idea about what has caused their pain. If they are old enough, they might say ‘overuse’, or ‘wear and tear’; if they are younger, they might say ‘bad posture’ or ‘tight muscles’; if they have had a scan, they might say a ‘slipped disc’ or a ‘bone spur’. We accept these explanations prima facie. We consider pain to be a readout on the state of the … [Read more...] about Wired into Pain
A recipe for bad qualitative research
I often think that I was very lucky to have been given a classical physiotherapy training – with its focus on anatomy and physiology, biomechanics and kinesiology, objective testing and quantitative research. But this was enriched no end by being introduced to qualitative research early in the 1990s when it was really taking off in healthcare. Since then I've probably reviewed more than a hundred qualitative research articles and read thousands more. And in all that time I still come back to one simple test of whether qualitative research is any good or not. Whenever I review qualitative research article I ask myself is the study is telling me anything I don't know already. … [Read more...] about A recipe for bad qualitative research
30 Days of September: Day 20
Today's image was suggested by Shaun Cleaver. Click on the image to open it to full size. You can then save it and turn it into a desktop background by following these brief instructions. … [Read more...] about 30 Days of September: Day 20
Meeting the human body
This post is a reblogging of a recent post by Jenny Wickford. Jenny is a Swedish physiotherapist with a special interest in looking at pelvic pain and dysfunction from a functional and movement-based perspective. Jenny's blogsite can be found here. I have had the rare opportunity to spend three courses totaling 22 days exploring the human body through dissection. These courses have, hands down, been some of the most powerful experiences I have had – personally and professionally. They have challenged much of what I have been taught, what I thought I knew. The forms, in their silence, have showed me life in a whole different light. I am a firm believer in the power of touch. Our … [Read more...] about Meeting the human body
Critical Approaches to Health: Constructing Pain – new book offer from Routledge
This announcement was sent by Routledge yesterday and involves the work of some of our good friends in the International Society of Critical Health Psychology (ISCHP). We are really pleased to announce that the first book in our Routledge series, Critical Approaches to Health, has just been published. The book is entitled Constructing Pain, and is authored by ISCHP Exec member, Robert Kugelmann. More details at https://www.routledge.com/Constructing-Pain-Historical-psychological-and-critical-perspectives/Kugelmann/p/book/9781138841222 where you can also look inside the book and read the introduction. You can also find information about the series at … [Read more...] about Critical Approaches to Health: Constructing Pain – new book offer from Routledge
How to be an expert in physiotherapy today
There was an interesting collaborative blogpost by Jarod Hall a few days ago. Titled 'Knowledge Bombs for a Successful Clinical Career' it summarised a great collective effort by a number of experienced clinicians looking to summarise some of the key tenets of current clinical practice (link). Some of the summary points were that good clinicians build therapeutic alliances and actively ('truly') listen to their clients; that clinicians are experts at the basics and should not take the blame for patients not getting better; and that education and exercise are key. There are many things to like about this blogpost, not least the collaboration between colleagues and the earnest attempt … [Read more...] about How to be an expert in physiotherapy today
Simon Kirkegaard – Pain neuroscience education – 30DoS #25
In this post, CPN Exec member Simon Kirkegaard, writes about the problem of stubborn (chronic) pain. Many bright minds have contemplated on the complexity of pain for millennia yet even in 2016 we are still looking for a really effective and efficient way to alleviate stubborn (chronic) pain. There is a tendency to rely heavily on passive treatments and medication for pain which produce great results for short term pain and injury but dependency and more pain for the more stubborn pain that approximately 1/5 of population of the western world live with. A new exciting systematic review by Adriaan Louw et al. (2016) provides strong evidence for pain biology education as part of … [Read more...] about Simon Kirkegaard – Pain neuroscience education – 30DoS #25