Topical Concurrent Session 1C – Treating Chronic Pain From A Neurobiological Perspective

Description

Over the past 10 years, systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials have found that most common management strategies (e.g., drugs, surgery, acupuncture, etc.) for chronic pain do not provide clinically meaningful reductions in pain or disability and may do severe harm. There is an urgent need to identify alternative approaches to managing chronic pain.

Research investigating the contribution of altered neural processing to the chronic pain experience has suggested novel treatment approaches for people with chronic pain. Interventions thought to target central nervous system function – conceptual change reinforced with graded sensory and movement programmes – may offer clinically meaningful reductions in pain intensity for adults with chronic pain.

Consistent with this approach, our group developed a novel education and graded sensorimotor retraining program, RESOLVE, that employs a framework informed by pain science that directly targets how people think about their body in pain, how the painful area feels to them and how they move and load the painful area.

We will present new data on novel treatment strategies to target central nervous system function for people with chronic pain. This will appeal to both clinicians and researchers keen on providing treatments which better align with the biopsychosocial nature of chronic pain.

Speakers:
Professor James McAuley, University of NSW, NSW
Professor Benedict Wand, University of Notre Dame, WA
Dr Aidan Cashin, Neuroscience Research Australia, NSW