This class will cover how physiological and psychological stress plays a major role in maladaptive neural processes involved in the development of chronic pain. It will also discuss the relationships between chronic pain, mental health and sleep problems. This class also covers the research showing how physical trauma influences the development of subluxations and the consequences on brain function, i.e. the role of altered proprioceptive signalling in driving the neural plastic changes associated with chronic spinal pain problems.
We discuss how to talk about symptoms. This involves explaining the latest understanding about how symptoms do not just develop out of thin air, but instead, the problem builds up undetected over time like a thousand straws on a camel’s back, then appear ‘suddenly’ once you reach the thousandth straw.
Learning Outcomes
- Explain the effects of stress and a lack of sleep
- Thoughts on the development of chronic pain and other chronic health conditions
- Understand the role of the prefrontal cortex in pain processing and the chronification of pain
- How to communicate the effects of stress, sleep, and thoughts on the development of chronic pain and other chronic health conditions to the public in easy to understand language
- Understanding symptoms and how to communicate this to the public
Pain may be like the last straw that broke the camel’s back