The unmentionable pain down there

Chronic pain isn’t a popular topic in health, or even socially. Chronic pain “down there” (yes, I’m talking genitals and in both women AND men) must be the least popular topic in pain management. I think it might be a throwback to the Victorian past, or maybe that pelvic pain isn’t usually a compensable pain so it doesn’t get blamed for work loss, but whatever, it’s just not featured all that often in pain management. Courtesy of my wonderful friend Sandy Hilton from Entropy Physio Therapy I’ve been prodded into looking at this problem, and came across a preprint of the British Pain Society’s pelvic pain patient pathway in the British Journal of Anaesthesia. Pathways, like any algorithm or guideline, are intended to simplify and encourage consistent approaches to a clinical problem. They are often developed by groups of specialists in the field, and in the case of chronic pain, these specialists often come from a range of disciplines. What guidelines or pathways cannot do is provide a “one-size-fits-all” solution – and they don’t pretend to. What they do offer is a consensus position in what should generally work well for people with that clinical problem. Clinicians: you still need to use your clinical reasoning, and most importantly, you still need to listen to the person who has the pain to see if any recommendations work for them. What do these guidelines come up with? The first and most importa...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - Category: Occupational Therapists Authors: Tags: Chronic pain Clinical reasoning Interdisciplinary teams Pain conditions healthcare pelvic pain physiotherapy Source Type: blogs