ARC Physical Therapy+ is committed to being part of the pain epidemic solution as a resource in our communities for pain management. As part of that commitment, we recently hosted a pain neuroscience continuing education course for our clinicians.
On February 23-24, 2019, over 20 clinicians from Kansas City, Wichita, Springfield and Iowa attended two days of intensive, on-site education focused on therapeutic neuroscience education (TNE).
The pain neuroscience education (PNE) course was taught by Adriaan Louw, PT, PhD, CSMT, from the International Spine and Pain Institute (ISPI). Louw is the co-founder and CEO of the ISPI and has been teaching postgraduate, spinal manual therapy, and pain science classes throughout the US and internationally for 15 years. He has presented at numerous national and international manual therapy, pain science, and medical conferences, and has authored and co-authored articles, books, and book chapters related to spinal disorders and pain science. Recently, Adriaan completed his Ph.D., which centers on therapeutic neuroscience education and spinal disorders.
Throughout the 2-day course, he shared the evolution of therapeutic neuroscience education (TNE), why education is needed in patient care and, more importantly, the clinical application and implementation of TNE for patients with acute, sub-acute and chronic pain.
Evidence has shown that neuroscience educational strategies focused on teaching people in pain more about the biological and physiological processes involved in their pain experience, changes patient beliefs regarding their pain, thus reducing the threat of pain.
Our physical therapists learned cutting-edge techniques to help patients reduce pain, increase function, reduce fear and catastrophization, improve movement and change cognitions and brain activation during pain experiences.
With this new approach the patient understands what pain is and how it works and has realistic expectations for post-operative pain. Patients are more likely to undergo standard follow-up, rather than seek additional imaging, tests and treatments. Even better, substantial differences are observed in average costs and the level of patient satisfaction.
Our physical therapists are now applying their course learnings to their clinical practice and can help you, your patients or clients better manage their pain. Contact us at (913) 831-2721 to learn more.
