Our understanding of pain has changed in recent years.
We now know that each person’s beliefs about pain and the way they respond to it make a big difference to their recovery from injuries.
We also know that there is a lot more to the pain we experience than just the physical component of the pain.
A recent study showed that most people found their pain had improved from receiving education to help them understand their pain better.
The three key themes that the participants found to be of most benefit were;
- Pain does not mean your body is broken – the degree of pain you feel is not always directly related to the degree of tissue damage. In some cases there may be no real damage.
- Thoughts /emotions and experiences affect pain – we know that beliefs, thoughts, emotions and memories can have a big effect on each person’s experience of pain.
- I can retrain my overprotective pain system – we know that anyone with persistent pain can benefit from retraining the way they experience pain. This can bring very real and often large benefits.
Pain does not necessarily mean the body is damaged.
We can use this understanding of how pain operates in the body to help people recover from painful situations faster and more completely.
Education about pain also enhances the effectiveness of other interventions, such as exercise, to improve outcomes after injury.
If you have persistent pain or pain that hasn’t resolved, we can help you with this.
Leake, Hayley B.a,b,*; Moseley, G. Lorimera; Stanton, Tasha R.a; O’Hagan, Edel T.b,c; Heathcote, Lauren C.d What do patients value learning about pain? A mixed-methods survey on the relevance of target concepts after pain science education, PAIN: October 2021 – Volume 162 – Issue 10 – p 2558-2568
