Topic 6: Challenging Thoughts, Emotions and Pain

Chronic pain can be one of the most debilitating conditions in daily life. Chronic pain goes beyond the pain itself. The mental stress and biopsychosocial effects of pain can be just as severe as the pain itself. In fact, people with chronic pain are three times more likely to develop depression. If you’re suffering from […]

Topic 5: Sleep and Pain

Sleep problems and chronic pain seem to go hand in hand. Frequently people with chronic pain find it difficult to fall asleep, or sleep is often disrupted with long night awakenings. Even if you get a good amount of sleep, you can still feel very tired in the morning as the quality of sleep is […]

Topic 4: Food and Pain

The foods you eat (and don’t) can determine how well your body fights painful inflammation. Chronic pain is associated with elevated weight status, risk of multi-morbidity, suboptimal dietary patterns and diet quality. When pain becomes chronic, the life of the patients is dramatically affected, being associated with significant emotional distress and/or functional disability. A complex […]

Topic 3: Movement and Pain

Exercise is medicine. Relaxed movement and physical activity are vital to helping you manage your pain so you can do the everyday things that are important to you. Think for a minute about spraining your ankle or your back: when we experience acute pain, especially when it is distressing, one of the body’s natural responses […]

Topic 2: Medicines and Pain

The name ‘pain killers’ tends to give the wrong idea. Pain medications called ‘analgesics’ or pain modifiers, and most pain procedures, only tend to help about 1 person out of 4 improve their pain by 50% (or more), compared to a placebo or dummy treatment. So if a pain medication is given to 4 people, […]

Topic 1: Understanding Pain

Pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain, as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage”. This is the revised IASP definition as of 2020. Pain is one of the body’s important alarm systems, designed to protect us […]