211: How To Approach Pain Neuroscience Education In Neuro With Dr. Adriaan Louw, PT, PhD

Do you work with people who have pain AND neurologic conditions? In our world it would be rare to find someone who doesn’t have at least a few patients or clients who experience pain either as a result of their diagnosis or even pain that is completely unrelated but persists. In this episode we had the privilege of picking the brain of one of the best pain neuroscience educators around, Dr. Adriaan Louw, PT, PhD, senior faculty, pain science director and vice-president of faculty experience for Evidence in Motion. As a leader in the field of pain neuroscience, Adriaan has authored and co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles related to spinal disorders and pain science. If you’ve ever seen him teach at a conference his courses are the ones with the overflowing rooms for a reason: He knows his stuff! And clinicians are hungry for the knowledge and skills that will help people with pain feel better and return to function again. We asked Adriaan the best ways to incorporate pain neuroscience education (PNE) into practice when working with people with complex histories. He discussed the importance of both education and an approach to function as well as how to identify who is ready for change regarding their pain. You’ll learn key outcome assessments you should be using for your patients who have pain and how to create a balance of addressing the pain and progressing function in therapy sessions. Assessments like the Central Sensitization Inventory Scale, Fear Avoidance Belief Questionnaire and Pain Catastrophization Survey can help you identify who will benefit the most from PNE. You’ll also learn how language matters and which words to use and which words to avoid when describing pain and other medical conditions as they can impact the pain someone is experiencing. We discuss how to approach a person who feels like their pain is completely physical as well as how much time or effort to dedicate to incorporating PNE in sessions vs other activities and with which patients. You’ll learn this and so much more in the episode!

Resources mentioned in the episode (Note, some require permission from authors. Links will give you the information needed to request)

Central Sensitization Inventory

Fear Avoidance Belief Questionnaire

Pain Catastrophization Survey

Sticks and Stones: The Impact of Language on Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation 

Medbridge courses with Adriaan Louw

whyyouhurt.com free videos for clinicians and patients

EIM courses

OPTP books and resources by Addriaan Louw

Join the NeuroSpark waitlist to be the first to hear when we open again! Dr. Louw will be a presenter inside NeuroSpark in the upcoming quadrimester Summer 2024!