I frequently joke with many of my colleagues that I’m an OT in a physio’s body. Most of my work in pain management involves supporting people, increasing self-efficacy, addressing concerns or worries about misconceptions of fragility of the body and of course getting people moving. So, yeah I’m a physio and I often question what [...]
It's been a while since I released a 31 days project video. I've been reading a lot of papers back from the 80s and seeing that actually not a lot has changed in terms of pain management. One pioneering individual (he is for me) is Bill Fordyce. He identified how learning and experiences influenced the occurrence [...]
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is commonly associated with an injury of the extremities. In CRPS type I, the most common is a fracture of the hand or foot complex. In the upper limb (which has a higher prevalence of CRPS) an uncomplicated radial fracture would normally take around 6-8 weeks to heal (if no [...]
Exercise is routinely advocated by healthcare professionals as a treatment to address pain and tissue injury. The consensus that strengthening the local tissue will attenuate pain by improving its resilience whilst transitioning through a natural cycle of tissue healing. Whilst exercise does have morphological effects on local muscle it is understood that increases in muscle [...]
I am very privileged to have another guest post from a Physiotherapist that has just as much of an obsessive interest in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome as I do. Janet Holly (@innerchild) is a Senior Physiotherapist at Ottawa Hospital in Canada. Janet recently had a paper (ref) published with Tara Packham (@TaraLPackham) in the Journal [...]
There’s been a lot of talk around the term fake news in the media. Mr Trump (I can’t believe he got a mention in my blog!) is a master of calling out fake news and it was so popular it was named word of the year in 2017 (reference). Fake News is the term [...]
We've all seen that familiar face pulled by people living with persistent who are being asked to exercise for the first time. Dosage is something we are all familiar with when it comes to taking medication. Yet with exercise will still tend to focus on the typical 3 sets of 10 or 12 or 15 [...]
Exercise is medicine (EiM) has gained a significant amount of attention since its launch by the American College of Sports Medicine in 2007. A global health initiative that has since been adopted by many other countries throughout the world to address the growing problem of chronic disease and inactivity. According to the World Health Organisation [...]
So some of you that might be reading this (and that know me) are familiar with my fascination of the use of Virtual Reality within a persistent pain setting. I am the first person to admit it is very cool and it is something that I am exploring more clinically. However, I want to put [...]
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a severely debilitating condition. It’s been ranked higher than pregnancy and amputation of a digit on the McGill Pain Index. Currently, there is no single treatment specifically for CRPS. Yet this is a common trend with all complex pain presentations. A multi-modal approach is required due to the complex [...]
