Course Description:

This two-part course will review the latest data on population and treatment trends with musculoskeletal pain conditions in western cultures and will highlight areas for innovation and change. We will discuss basic pain science and review the mechanisms at play during acute and chronic pain episodes. Finally, in the first half of the presentation, we will review risk factors for the development of chronic pain and potential ways to mitigate these risk factors earlier in treatment.

The second half of this course will review the latest evidence based approaches for treating pain. We will discuss the value of a therapeutic alliance and other communication skills to drive improved outcomes in our most challenging pain patients. After reviewing the research, we will watch a video with alternative ways to approach common scenarios that may arise with complex pain patients to amplify the therapeutic outcome of our treatments. We will then review the basic mechanisms and implementation processes for other evidence based pain treatments. Lastly, we will review a case study and discuss different potential approaches.