Recovery from persistent pain
Persistent pain is defined as pain which has persisted for over 3-6 months.
Persistent pain is common. It affects 30-50% of the population. The impact is significant, negatively affecting our physical and mental health, our social and home lives and our ability to stay in work.
The science. The scientific understanding of persistent pain has changed immensely over recent years. We know that many medicines and some surgeries that work well in acute pain following an injury / infection / inflammation are ineffective and are not recommended in persistent pain.
Recovery is possible, Knowledge is power. The great news is that recovery is possible from persistent pain and the starting point is education. This is very challenging for us to cover within the time constraints of a GP appointment, so we ask you to spend some time looking at the resources below.
Pain explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B14_2TS7RHM – This is a 6 minute video which explains the concept of the biopsychosocial approach which is the approach that has the best evidence base for recovery from persistent pain.
For further in-depth learning we ask you to look at:
https://www.flippinpain.co.uk/formula/
There are some short video animations and the podcast is a fantastic resource for pain recovery education.
We would then like to you make a follow-up appointment where we can explore your pain in more detail and help come up with an individualised approach to help you move on in your recovery journey.
We know that different people learn in different ways and have differing access to technology. So if the information on this page is difficult to access then please let us know. We can organise a paper copy of the pain science workbook if you prefer learning by reading. https://www.greglehman.ca/pain-science-workbooks