Pain hurts!\u00a0 It\u2019s real. You can\u2019t see it, but you know when you feel it.<\/p>\n
One in five Canadians experience persistent pain.\u00a0 Unfortunately, many are recommended sub-optimal<\/a>, second-line, or even non-recommended treatments.<\/p>\n Most people, including health care professionals, view pain through an outdated, biomedical lens<\/a> and focus on treating the tissues.\u00a0 The contemporary model of pain is the biopsychosocial model (BPS)<\/a>, whereby pain is a product of, and is perpetuated by, our thoughts, emotions, learned experience, social setting, and<\/em> our biology.\u00a0 We share examples from everyday life of the BPS model in action in a previous blog post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite clinical guidelines that recommend treating pain using a biopsychosocial approach, it is still widely underused and misunderstood. \u00a0Self-management strategies like education, movement, and cognitive behavioural therapy are among the best first-line treatments<\/a> that we have for pain.\u00a0 But, if a person believes their pain is purely structural, they are less likely to be open to non-pharmacological, active management strategies and may have expectations for passive forms<\/a> of pain management.\u00a0 The patient may also experience a lack of validation and confusion as to why brain-based treatments are being recommended by their health care professional without explaining how<\/em> such a treatment might help.\u00a0 Here is an example of this confusion (and invalidation):<\/p>\n \u201cwhat are you giving me anti-depressants for?\u00a0 I\u2019m not depressed, my back hurts \u2013 that\u2019s why I\u2019m depressed, and you people are depressing me because you\u2019re not listening.\u201d<\/em> \u00a0\u00a0(p. 207<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We want to change the narrative around pain.\u00a0 We want to empower patients with the knowledge that pain is influenced by multiple factors and actively targeting these factors can influence a person\u2019s pain experience.\u00a0\u00a0 Our studies have explored patient-centred ways to support sharing knowledge about pain with both patients and health care professionals.<\/p>\n We engaged with 21 people living with chronic pain<\/a> through focus groups and a brief introductory lesson about the BPS model.\u00a0 Despite having pain for an average of 14 years, only three participants had ever heard about the BPS model from a health care professional.\u00a0 Participant accuracy on a questionnaire about how pain works was low, reflecting a low understanding of the BPS model, but notably, their scores greatly improved following the study activities.<\/p>\n Through this work, we identified knowledge gaps, barriers and facilitators, key messages, and potential techniques for sharing knowledge about the complexities of pain. \u00a0We highlight a need for sharing pain knowledge given that participants described a strong biomedical bias in the care they had received, despite many noting that they were seeking alternatives and felt dismissed.\u00a0 For example, a participant described:<\/p>\n \u201c[the doctor said] \u2018well, there\u2019s nothing we can do.\u2019 And I thought, \u2018Can\u2019t you even refer me to a peer support group or something about this issue?\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sharing knowledge that pain is multifactorial and is not an accurate reflection of tissue damage may challenge strongly held beliefs.\u00a0 Based on what we have learned from people living with pain, here are some things to consider when introducing this concept to someone living with pain:<\/p>\n Here are some comments from participants following a brief introduction to the BPS model of pain:<\/p>\n Patients want to learn about the BPS model, few have ever been told about it, and those that have misunderstand the multifactorial influence on pain<\/em>, not because of<\/em> pain.\u00a0 A brief introduction to how pain works gave participants in our study a sense of hope and agency over their pain. This marks an important first step towards improved quality of life through evidence-based self-management.<\/p>\n Here are a few great websites and videos to get you started: Flippin\u2019 pain<\/a>, Pain Revolution<\/a>, Like mind like body Podcast (Curable Health)<\/a>, Tell me about your pain Podcast (Curable Health)<\/a>, along with some evidence-based videos: Understanding pain in less than 5 minutes<\/a>; Tame the beast.<\/a><\/p>\n For more information, contact Cynthia Thomson, Associate Professor, School of Kinesiology at cynthia.thomson@ufv.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pain hurts!\u00a0 It\u2019s real. You can\u2019t see it, but you know when you feel it. One in five Canadians experience persistent pain.\u00a0 Unfortunately, many are recommended sub-optimal, second-line, or even non-recommended treatments. When it comes to treating pain, large gaps exist between evidence and practice. Most people, including health care professionals, view pain through an … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":283,"featured_media":1376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,77,6,10,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-focus","category-health","category-kinesiology","category-news","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1369"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1380,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions\/1380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}When it comes to treating pain, large gaps exist between evidence and practice.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Results from our study: Let\u2019s talk about pain!<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Spreading the knowledge is valued, but it\u2019s not easy!<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Highlighting the value the BPS model brings to patients<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Want to learn more about how pain works?\u00a0 Resources to get you started<\/strong><\/h4>\n