Explaining central sensitisation to patients

January 09, 2015 by Sian Smale

Pain education in the clinical setting, particularly in a 1:1 setting with patients can be very challenging to do. The aim of this blog is to define the changes which occur within the body that result in central sensitisation and some options of how to educate patients about the meanings of chronic pain and central sensitisation pain.

The Pain Neuromatrix

November 07, 2014 by Sian Smale

This blog explores the neuroanatomy of pain and the concept of the pain neuromatrix. It provides a brief outline on how we can adapt our physiotherapy treatment to better educate our patients and retrain them to improve their functional levels without activating the pain neuromatrix.

A mechanism-based approach to clinical reasoning of pain.

April 04, 2014 by Sian Smale

The clinical reasoning process for pain is complicated, particularly as there is no gold standard assessment for pain. Smart and collegues interview experiences musculoskeletal physiotherapists and pain physicians to determine which symptoms and clinical signs are indicative of nociceptive, neuropathic and central sensitisation pain, and their clinical utility and accuracy in diagnosis.

Frozen Shoulder...Fear Avoidance?

March 19, 2014 by Alicia Rayner

A interesting case study presented by Alicia from her clinical experience during her Masters on adhesive capsulitis. Sometimes when the pieces don't fit together we need to think beyond the patho-anatomical model. In this case, fear and the cognitive-affective aspects of the presentation were the patients biggest problem. In this blog Alicia explores the fear-avoidance model and its effect on pain.

Clinical presentation of neuropathic pain.

January 10, 2014 by Sian Smale

This blog highlights the key messages from Nee and Butlers article (2006) on the clinical presentation of neuropathic pain. It outlines both the presentation of nerve trunk pain and dysesthetic pain.