Treatment broadens approach to back pain

Physiotherapy is about more than just the physical body, says United Kingdom physiotherapist Gail Sowden. Photo: Gregor Richardson
Physiotherapy is about more than just the physical body, says United Kingdom physiotherapist Gail Sowden. Photo: Gregor Richardson
A new workshop at the University of Otago is teaching physiotherapists to consider the psychological and social aspects of back pain, rather than just the physical aspects of it.

Consultant therapist Gail Sowden, of Keele University in the United Kingdom, is teaching the different approach to physiotherapists at a four-day workshop at the university in Dunedin this week.

She said research showed not all patients with back pain were the same. There was a separate group of patients who experienced chronic pain and it was about understanding how to help them.

''It's integrating [a] physical and psychological approach. It's understanding that we're not treating a back. We're treating a person with back pain and that person has worries and concerns, beliefs and behaviours and we need to understand that if we're going to help them.''

The model of treatment, known as Start Back, had been used in the UK, but this was the first time it had been taught in New Zealand, she said.

Prof Dave Baxter, of the school of physiotherapy, was part of a group of universities that brought Start Back training to New Zealand.

Prof Baxter said New Zealand was regarded internationally as being good at managing back pain, but was not as successful in managing chronic pain.

''Pain is a psychological event and depending what else is going on in your life, the pain can be fine or the pain can be disabling.''

The university would start teaching the new psychological model for back pain to undergraduate and postgraduate students by the end of this year.

hope.burmeister@odt.co.nz

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