Exercise therapy for chronic musculoskeletal pain: Innovation by altering pain memories
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
Even though nociceptive pathology has often long subsided, the brain of patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain has typically acquired a protective (movement-related) pain memory. Exercise therapy for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain is often hampered by such pain memories. Here the authors explain how musculoskeletal therapists can alter pain memories in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain, by integrating pain neuroscience education with exercise interventions. The latter includes applying graded exposure in vivo principles during exercise therapy, for targeting the brain circuitries orchestrated by the amygdala (the memory of fear centre in the brain). Before initiating exercise therapy, a preparatory phase of intensive pain neuroscience education is required. Next, exercise therapy can address movement-related pain memories by applying the ‘exposure without danger’ principle. By addressing patients’ perceptions about exercises, therapists should try to decrease the anticipated danger (threat level) of the exercises by challenging the nature of, and reasoning behind their fears, assuring the safety of the exercises, and increasing confidence in a successful accomplishment of the exercise. This way, exercise therapy accounts for the current understanding of pain neuroscience, including the mechanisms of central sensitization.
related content
- “Nociception affects motor output: a review on sensory-motor interaction with focus on clinical implications,” Nijs et al, The Clinical Journal of Pain, 2012.
- “Dysfunctional endogenous analgesia during exercise in patients with chronic pain: to exercise or not to exercise?,” Nijs et al, Pain Physician, 2012.
- “How to explain central sensitization to patients with 'unexplained' chronic musculoskeletal pain: practice guidelines,” Nijs et al, Manual Therapy, 2011.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
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