Why Your Patients May Develop Chronic Pain

...you?

You see, the way people think, affect the way people feel. And the way you interact with your patients, may affect the way your patients think.

As you may or may not know, chronic pain is a disease in and of itself and is, by and large, rarely a reflection of diseased or injured tissue. In a musculoskeletal sense, injured tissues generally take weeks, maybe months, to fully recover and the normal healing process typically dictates proper plan of management. But for the most part, a proper plan of management must respect the stages of "healing".

Let me ask you this...

• In the acute phase, do you chase the pain and perpetuate? Or do you medicate and manipulate and EDUCATE?

• In the subacute phase, do you over-perform passive care and still chase the pain? Or do you provide self-care exercise and EXPLAIN?

• In the chronic phase, do you coddle the patient while you search for the magic cure? Or do you interact with the patient, expose in a graded fashion and REASSURE?

So in the event that you are unsure as to what I mean by the above, may I kindly suggest that you grab a snack and watch the video below.

*Please note that I am not advocating medication and manipulation for all acute patients, this was simply an example.