Topical Concurrent Session 3C – Understanding the impact of contextual factors on individual-level response to pain and its treatment

Description

The biopsychosocial model is the widely held conceptualisation of pain. While a wealth of research supports the important role of converging biological and psychological factors in pain, the interconnected role of the social contextual frame in which they are occurring has been somewhat neglected in recent years of research. The first speaker, Professor Hutchinson will highlight the important role of pre-injury/pain contextual factors by presenting research from a biological perspective of the impact of prior life events on pain phenotype. Professor Sterling, the second speaker, will then explore the influence of a traumatic versus non-traumatic context at the point of injury, linking biological processes with the occurrence of co-morbid post-traumatic stress disorder. The third speaker, Associate Professor Day, will present data from a recently completed randomised controlled trial to elucidate the contextual role of the therapeutic learning environment and social learning processes during psychological treatment. Thus, this session will examine the role of context at pre-injury, the role of context at the point of injury, and the role of context at post-injury during treatment. The findings that will be discussed therefore have implications for the prevention of chronic pain and co-morbidities, as well as treatment optimisation.

Speakers:
Professor Mark Hutchinson, University of Adelaide, SA
Professor Michele Sterling, University of Queensland, QLD
A/Professor Melissa Day, University of Queensland, QLD