Both patients agreed upon an individualised management plan with the multidisciplinary pain management team.
Case 1
This patient worked with the specialist physiotherapist on a one-to-one basis for a small number of sessions to work on understanding her pain in relation to reducing fear and looking at the myths around persistent pain. She quickly developed her own strategies to reduce her anxiety and tension, became less fearful of her pain and learned to work within her limits of comfort, rather than pushing to achieve a task.
Case 2
This patient continues to work with the team in a joint clinic with a specialist physiotherapist and clinical psychologist and is pleased with his progress. The team have helped him to make sense of his persistent pain and to reduce fear associated with it. The have used a variety of approaches to help him identify a neuroplastic cause for his pain, moving him away from attributing his symptoms to a structural cause. They worked with him to find inconsistencies in his pain, such as pain brought on immediately by sitting in his car seat (but sitting in a similar chair in the house did not provoke his symptoms). He is making excellent progress and has shifted his approach from searching for a cure to wanting to work with his pain system to pursue his goals and improve his quality of life.
Please see the Recommended Reading for November 2023 for further relevant, interesting open access papers on this topic.
