{"id":2172,"date":"2019-04-24T11:54:47","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T11:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/?p=2172"},"modified":"2020-02-18T16:29:04","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T16:29:04","slug":"complexity-persistent-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/managing-pain\/complexity-persistent-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"The complexity of persistent pain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-profile-box round ab-has-avatar ab-font-size-14 ab-block-profile ab-profile-columns\"><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-avatar-wrap\"><div class=\"ab-profile-image-wrap\"><figure class=\"ab-profile-image-square\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" class=\"ab-profile-avatar wp-image-2173\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211441\/P6-Expert-Panel-Irish-Society-of-Chartered-Physiotherapists-Niall-Halliday-Headshot.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211441\/P6-Expert-Panel-Irish-Society-of-Chartered-Physiotherapists-Niall-Halliday-Headshot.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211441\/P6-Expert-Panel-Irish-Society-of-Chartered-Physiotherapists-Niall-Halliday-Headshot-125x125.jpg 125w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211441\/P6-Expert-Panel-Irish-Society-of-Chartered-Physiotherapists-Niall-Halliday-Headshot-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211441\/P6-Expert-Panel-Irish-Society-of-Chartered-Physiotherapists-Niall-Halliday-Headshot-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/figure><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-content-wrap\"><h2 class=\"ab-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Niall Halliday<\/h2><p class=\"ab-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Physiotherapist (MSc Pain Science), Chairperson of Chartered Physiotherapists in Pain Management group, Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists\u00a0<br \/><\/p><div class=\"ab-profile-text\"><\/div><ul class=\"ab-social-links\"><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A focus on the importance of understanding your pain, with its impact on your life; and therefore the role of the physiotherapist in implementing coping strategies to help manage your pain<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone has an understanding of pain, which is usually based on our own experiences, the experiences of those close to us, as well as ideas and information we get from wider society. When it comes to pain we often have a clear expectation of how much an injury or impact should hurt, where we should feel it and long it should last. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, for many people this expectation is not met and pain does not behave they way we expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The cost of persistent pain on Irish society <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a rare few people who are born insensitive to pain which can lead to an accumulation of injuries and problems that as a result in some cases can reduce life expectancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a much larger group of people pain can become a constant feature in their lives by and large arriving without warning, affecting many areas of their body and lasting for a long time. This type of pain is called persistent pain and in Ireland a 2008 study found that over 20% of the population have had persistent pain for over 10 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Persistent pain has a huge impact on peoples\u2019 lives affecting their mood, work, family relationships and moreover finances. It is also a very costly problem for the health service with the the same 2008 study estimating the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/news\/health\/chronic-pain-at-4-7bn-a-year-1.572828\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">total cost of persistent pain at \u20ac4.7bn per year<\/a>, which at the time was 2.55% of GDP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Learning\nhow to manage your condition <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We now know that pain is multimodal with a\nnumber of factors affecting our experience. The complexity of persistent pain\nas a condition can seem like the greatest hurdle in both assessing people\nlooking for help with their pain, and working with them to improve their\nsymptoms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, our understanding of how the body works in relation to how we experience pain is developing all the time. This new understanding is placing neuroscience education for people in pain as a core part of recovery. Allied to this are developments in exercise physiology and prescription in persistent pain. Along with management strategies for mood and sleep, these strategies offer a solid platform upon which to base recovery. Physiotherapists also play an important role in helping people with persistent pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A multi-disciplinary approach to treating your pain<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The best framework to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/managing-pain\/chronic-pain-can-affect-everyone-it-doesnt-discriminate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">understanding and managing persistent pain<\/a> is the bio-psychosocial framework. By understanding this very complex condition from a biological, psychological and social perspective we have the best chance of planning a successful recovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Acknowledging this complexity is very important because, in my opinion, there are usually no quick fixes for persistent pain; there are slower paced solutions, which involve planning and teamwork between the physiotherapist and the person in pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Implementing pain management strategies with your physiotherapist <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The role of a physiotherapist is to listen\nto the person in front of them and identify the factors affecting the person in\npain. Using their knowledge of pain biology, exercise, goal setting and problem\nsolving a physiotherapist can help the person in pain understand their\ncondition and develop a recovery plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is important for a physiotherapist to explain the significance of the many tests and scans people may have had, ensuring that the management plan in place is the right one. Developing fitness, education and management strategies take time for people in all walks of life and it is no different for those suffering with persistent pain. A strong relationship between the person in pain and the physiotherapist is key to a positive outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A focus on the importance of understanding your pain, with its impact on your life; and therefore the role of the physiotherapist in implementing coping strategies to help manage your pain. Everyone has an understanding of pain, which is usually based on our own experiences, the experiences of those close to us, as well as &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/managing-pain\/complexity-persistent-pain\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":2175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2663],"tags":[2701,2662],"class_list":["post-2172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-managing-pain","tag-expert-pain-panel","tag-managing-pain-2019"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211440\/adult-air-beautiful-321576-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/04\/07211440\/adult-air-beautiful-321576-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Your Future Career","author_link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/author\/harveyodonnell\/"},"vicky_index_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2172"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4136,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions\/4136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}