Patient rated outcome measures (PROM) in Chronic Pain

February 26, 2020 by Sian Smale

As our knowledge of chronic pain broadens, we are beginning to appreciate that there are modifiable risk factors that contribute to the development of long term pain and disability. Fear avoidance, negative beliefs, anxiety and depression are just a few. Several outcome measures are currently available to clinicians to help guide their clinical reasoning by identifying these risk factors. The purpose of this blog is to look specifically at outcome measures and explore how they guide our patient management.

The opiod epidemic - a personal perspective

July 17, 2018 by Sian Smale

It has been hard to ignore the surge in media and articles published in 2018 through professional platforms/bodies around the opioid epidemic. Curious to know more about what our suggested role is to play in this opioid epidemic, I began reading some of the latest reviews. This problem has been growing for several decades now and does not begin with our profession. Yet, our profession is being drawn into the conversation more strongly as time continues.

Sleep More, Hurt Less

March 30, 2017 by Sian Smale

This week we are excited to welcome guest writer and soon-to-be Physical Therapist Sara Suddes to Rayner & Smale. I met Sara while teaching at UCSF and was excited to hear about the topic for her final-year evidence based practice presentation. Before transferring in PT school, Sara worked as a newspaper reporter. Sara has spent many months researching the bidirectional relationship between sleep and pain and has put her brilliant writing skills to use to share with us her thoughts about sleep and pain.

Pain Education & Management Summarised!

February 02, 2017 by Sian Smale

Here is a list of all our blogs revolving around pain science, pain education and pain management.

Flexion relaxation response & low back pain

June 14, 2016 by Sian Smale

The flexion relaxation response is a phenomenon where the lumbar erector spinae muscles become silent at the end of lumbar flexion, and is an important part of being able to achieve full range. This blog explores the FRR and offers simple and easy treatment strategies for patients with low back pain.

Introducing the Imprecision Hypothesis in Chronic Pain

October 06, 2015 by Sian Smale

I'm so excited to share with you something I've recently come to learn about - the Imprecision Hypothesis in Chronic pain. A paper published in 2015 by Moseley & Vlaeyen explores associative learning and imprecise encoding of danger messages and provides insight into how these changes contribute to the development of chronic pain. It offers a different yet complementing hypothesis to that of central sensitisation in pain.