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AbstractThe eyes have it – recent developments in training the brain for chronic painLorimer Moseley, Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, AustraliaIn this lecture, I will outline some important developments in the way chronic pain is understood and treated. I will present fundamental research that has clear implications for the treatment of people in pain - for example, studies that show a two way relationship between the state and regulation of our body and the way our body feels, and studies that show high-order cognitive processes have implications for blood flow, brain processing of sensory input, immune function and immune-related tissue inflammation. These exciting findings are more exciting than they are intimidating - I will contend that we can harness the complexity of the human brain to help people in pain. I will provide examples of the use of visual input to trick and train the brain of people with chronic painful disorders. I will discuss studies that are at the forefront of this new line of enquiry and suggest that we are obliged as clinicians to begin integrating these new findings within our current clinical reasoning paradigms. |
