world congress and pain

[nari]

I was interested in the fact that David B reported on NOI that at the recent World Congress on the Lumbar Spine & Pelvis in Melbourne, there was virtually no mention of the brain....


Where are we really going? Into a large delta of beliefs? The brainers and the no-brainers?


Nari

[bernard]

Nari,

Of course. The world is everyday a bit more materialistic and everyday, Science find materialistic proves about human beings and diseases.

The trend will be, if the world continues to follow the ligth of America, a world where patients seek for a replacement of the defective component. They do not care if the component if only dys-functioning and they will do not understand when the replaced one will fail, too.

[nari]

Maybe even a replacement for a defective brain.

Wonder how a hippcampal or an anterior cingulate arthroplasty would go?

Nari

[Diane]

Those sorts of ops were tried.. remember the bad old days of lobectomies and lobotomies? Let's not go there again. Even if hippocampoplasty has a nice sound to it...

I think the congress focussed specifically on low back and pelvis pain, therefore it was more the peripheralists who attended and presented.
Diane

[pablo]

There was some mention of the brain if one listened with barin-tuned ears. Certainly, there was a great emphsis on anatomy, structure, and function. Having just returned from there yesterday, I have regained some enthusiasm for the importance of understanding biomechanics and function. Dianne Lee and Linda-Joy Lee-Kane presented an interesting idea where impaired force closure of the pelvis (basically poor motor control) and urinary stress incontinence are linked. They had very interesting footage of real-time ultrasound of bladder movement during the active straight leg raise test. In the ideal situation, it doesn't move much. With poor motor control (poor performance on the active straight-leg raise test) it descended. Then they showed the effect of imagery on function. Quite amazing. When they cued the patient to imagine a line going from the hip to the spine, pulling things in and holding them still, the patient was able to perform an ASLR without bladder movement and with much greater ease. Maybe the brain wasn't mentioned in the context of pain much, but it was there, loud and clear.

Pablo

[nari]

Pablo

Thanks for sorting out misperceptions!


Nari

[Diane]

I saw those slides a few months ago...
I think you already need a brain-steeped mind to hear brain between the lines. It wasn't mentioned once in the presentation I saw here at home, on research tools. The word "imagine" was the only word pertaining to brain. Right?

Diane

[nari]

A good point, Diane.

Serendipity might work for some less aware PTs, but unless those same people were actively looking for 'brain' and associating it with other factors, they would not find it or acknowledge its primary role.??.


Nari

[Diane]

Yes. I think by not mentioning the brain, it's parts, what goes on in it, how it might act in response to an intervention somewhere peripheral, how the bladder might be connected to the nervous system, etc., a subtle status quo is reinforced, that PTs have no business "thinking up" past tissue out in the hinterland of the body. We've been in the dark long enough! Time to get busy and integrate all this stuff!
Diane

[nari]

True, Diane

I get backwashed for trespassing past 'Muscle' and 'exercise' from other health professionals!!!

The vast majority of health professionals do not really know what we do, and why we do it...yet, I think a few people may be able to swing the perceptions around - at undergrad level.

Nari

[bernard]

Hi All,

The problem belongs to un-communication.
I see neuroscientists who are so specialized that they do not see other things than Brain and then can't communicate with others!
At the opposite I see body's workers who have no chance to meet the first ones!

In the middle, there is some of us, but we have few chance to convince the two sides.

Big problem. :?