A couple of weeks ago, I posted the first of a series of short critical summaries of the biomedical model. The biomedical model is perhaps one of the most important theories underpinning physiotherapy, and yet it is rarely taught overtly in the physiotherapy curriculum. Clinicians don’t see it hiding behind their assessments and diagnoses. They don’t see it underpinning most of the treatments. And they don’t recognise it as a key driver of the kind of knowledge we accept to be true and false. So having a better understanding of how the biomedical model works would seem like a good idea. In the first post of the series, I briefly wrote about specific aetiology and the idea that one of … [Read more...] about What is the biomedical model #2
Wired into Pain
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