Nociceptive Views - Edition 15 - 2023

Introduction

Let’s Move! Using physical activity and exercise to prevent and treat chronic pain

Advising someone living with chronic pain to get active and start exercising can be challenging. For most people suffering from chronic pain, the idea of exercising when you are already in pain seems contradictory. The contradiction arises because of an underlying belief that pain is an indicator of tissue damage, which is interpreted as meaning that we should not do anything which causes pain.

Integrated Pain Teams – better for patients AND clinicians!

Imagine waking up one day with pain all over your body. You haven’t fallen, been in an accident or lifted something heavy. You don’t have a fever. You haven’t done anything strange. You just hurt. You take medication, you go to the physiotherapist, who sends you to the GP. The GP sends you for blood tests (that all come back normal), gives you more medication and maybe an injection.

Treating acute pain to prevent progression to chronic pain

When acute pain remains untreated, or partially treated, or when repetitive episodes of acute painful stimuli are inappropriately managed, chronic pain may likely develop. Chronic pain is a burgeoning epidemic, with escalating numbers, which requires our attention.

The interrelationship between pain disorders and sleep disorders

The bidirectional relationship between pain and sleep has been accepted for a number of years. Patients with chronic pain are very likely to have disrupted sleep because of the pain whether the pain interferes with sleep onset or getting back to sleep after waking during the night.