Enduring explanations and building beliefs in people with back pain- with Dr Ben Darlow
04/03/20 • 57 min
In this episode of The Words Matter Podcast, Dr Oliver Thomson speaks with Dr Ben Darlow. Ben is a clinician, teacher and researcher. He works clinically as a Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Specialist based in private practice in Wellington, New Zealand.
His teaching and research are based in the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice at the University of Otago. More about Ben's academic work. His research interests lie in the understanding and management of common musculoskeletal conditions like low back pain and osteoarthritis. here.
Many of you will be aware of Ben’s excellent research into back pain beliefs; both his qualitative work such as his papers “The enduring impact of what clinicians say to patients with LBP” (see here), and “Easy to harm and hard to heal, patients view about the back” (see here), plus the development of the back pain attitudes questionnaire otherwise known as the BACK-PAQ tool, which is now widely used by researchers across the globe in the study of back pain(see here). His work features heavily in the Words Matter online course on effective language and communication in the management of back pain (details here).
In this episode we talked about the nature, origins and importance of back pain beliefs. We dig down into the role of the clinician in co-structuring beliefs, narratives and frameworks with people experiencing back pain. We also explored the challenges and opportunities of providing diagnoses and explanations to people in pain.
I was really excited to speak to Ben, he was way up on the list of people I wanted to have on the show and his work has been hugely transformative for my own clinical work and I know influential for many MSK colleagues. Ben is a wealth of knowledge and able to relate his knowledge of the evidence to clinical practice in immensely engaging, passionate and accessible way. I bring You Dr Ben Darlow.
Liked the podcast, then help it grow- Listen, like, rate and share.
Subscribe to www.wordsmatter-education.com , and check out the online course in effective language and communication when managing back pain.
Instagram @Wordsmatter_education
Twitter @WordsClinical
Facebook Words Matter - Improving Clinical Communication
★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
In this episode of The Words Matter Podcast, Dr Oliver Thomson speaks with Dr Ben Darlow. Ben is a clinician, teacher and researcher. He works clinically as a Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Specialist based in private practice in Wellington, New Zealand.
His teaching and research are based in the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice at the University of Otago. More about Ben's academic work. His research interests lie in the understanding and management of common musculoskeletal conditions like low back pain and osteoarthritis. here.
Many of you will be aware of Ben’s excellent research into back pain beliefs; both his qualitative work such as his papers “The enduring impact of what clinicians say to patients with LBP” (see here), and “Easy to harm and hard to heal, patients view about the back” (see here), plus the development of the back pain attitudes questionnaire otherwise known as the BACK-PAQ tool, which is now widely used by researchers across the globe in the study of back pain(see here). His work features heavily in the Words Matter online course on effective language and communication in the management of back pain (details here).
In this episode we talked about the nature, origins and importance of back pain beliefs. We dig down into the role of the clinician in co-structuring beliefs, narratives and frameworks with people experiencing back pain. We also explored the challenges and opportunities of providing diagnoses and explanations to people in pain.
I was really excited to speak to Ben, he was way up on the list of people I wanted to have on the show and his work has been hugely transformative for my own clinical work and I know influential for many MSK colleagues. Ben is a wealth of knowledge and able to relate his knowledge of the evidence to clinical practice in immensely engaging, passionate and accessible way. I bring You Dr Ben Darlow.
Liked the podcast, then help it grow- Listen, like, rate and share.
Subscribe to www.wordsmatter-education.com , and check out the online course in effective language and communication when managing back pain.
Instagram @Wordsmatter_education
Twitter @WordsClinical
Facebook Words Matter - Improving Clinical Communication
★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
Previous Episode
Remote MSK? Words Matter (even more)- A COVID19 Special with David Hohenshurz-Schmidt
Welcome to another episode of the Words Matter Podcast. This is an impromptu podcast given that the world is in the grip of the COVID19 pandemic, and we are all having to adjust to new ways of living, thinking and being- including how we practice as clinicians.
Dr Oliver Thomson speaks with osteopath and David Hohenshurz-Schmidt, an osteopath and PhD student in Pain Research, about how communication skills have now been thrust into the forefront of musculoskeletal and MT practice, given that we are now unable to touch their patients due to the pandemic.
In this episode they spoke about the shift in skills necessary for manual therapists and MSK clinicians to conduct appointments remotely either online or via telephone, and thee requires a change in how clinicians (and patients) conceptualise and see value in all different aspects of the clinical practice, such as the nature of ‘treatment’, their therapeutic role and their professional identity.
David is an osteopath and graduate of the University College of Osteopathy (UCO) in London, and he’s also currently in private clinical practice. He completed his MSc in Neuroscience from King's College London, where he focused on pain research using fMRI. He published his MSc research in Frontiers in Neuroscience Journal, not a bad start to a research career! See here for the full paper)
He’s currently in the midst of a PhD at Imperial College London, where he’s part of the pain research group (lead by Prof. Andrew Rice here) investigating methods to improve how we assess effectiveness of non-drug, non-surgical therapies for pain, including manual therapies, CBT, body-mind therapies, acupuncture. Moe about David's research here.
David and colleagues at UCO have developed a free webinar (see here) to offer advice and guidance for osteopaths and all MSK clinicians to move their clinical work remotely. It's a great resource and I found it extremely helpful for my own transition online.
You can reach David on Twitter at @davidhosch
Subscribe to www.wordsmatter-education.com for online courses and resources in communication for MSK clinicians.
Instagram @Wordsmatter_education
Twitter @WordsClinical
Facebook Words Matter - Improving Clinical Communication
Next Episode
Constructing and living with chronic back pain identities - with Dr Noor Abdal
On this episode I spoke with Dr Noor Abdal, a physiotherapist who has a special interest in persistent pain.
Noor and I both completed our PhD's around the same time at the University of Brighton, and were part of the same 'methodological group' employing constructivist grounded theory (GT) to try and figure things out. We resisted the temptation to launch into a discussion about GT and qualitative research (but a podcast is coming focusing on this topic...), but if you'd like to read more about GT see my paper here on what GT is all about.
In this podcast we spoke about Noor’s clinical work as a Biopsychosocially orientated physiotherapist in Kuwait and how she’s integrating psychologically-informed practice in her management of patients with chronic back pain (CLBP).
We also talked about her PhD research which explored illness identities amongst Kuwaiti women experiencing chronic low back pain (CLBP). She developed a grounded theory to describe and explain the impact of cultural, social and emotional experiences on women’s manifestations of CLBP and their behaviours towards it. We also chatted about how MSK clinicians can relate this theory to their clinical practice.
This was almost a catch-up with an old friend in addition to the podcast.
Find Dr Noor Abdal on Twitter on Instagram
Subscribe to www.wordsmatter-education.com , and check out the online course in effective language and communication when managing back pain.
Liked the podcast? Then help it grow- Listen, Like, Rate and Share.
Instagram @Wordsmatter_education
Twitter @WordsClinical
Facebook Words Matter - Improving Clinical Communication
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