Athletes Play Through Pain-What Does That Mean for Rehabilitation Specialists?

CONTEXT: Pain in sport has been normalized to the point where athletes are expected to ignore pain and remain in the game despite the possible detrimental consequences associated with playing through pain. While rehabilitation specialists may not have an influence on an athlete's competitive nature or the culture of risk they operate in, understanding the consequences of those factors on an athlete's physical well-being is definitely in their area of responsibility. OBJECTIVE: To explore the factors associated with the experiences of subelite athletes who play through pain in gymnastics, rowing, and speed skating. DESIGN: The authors conducted semistructured interviews with subelite athletes, coaches, and rehabilitation specialists. They recruited coach participants through their provincial sport organization. Athletes of the recruited coaches who were recovering from a musculoskeletal injury and training for a major competition were then recruited. They also recruited rehabilitation specialists who were known to treat subelite athletes independently by e-mail. SETTING: An observation session was conducted at the athlete's training facility. Interviews were then conducted either in a room at the university or at a preferred sound-attenuated location suggested by the participant. PARTICIPANTS: The authors studied 5 coaches, 4 subelite athletes, and 3 rehabilitation specialists. INTERVENTIONS: The authors photographed athletes during a practice shortly before an important competition, and we interviewed all the participants after that competition. Our photographs were used during the interview to stimulate discussion. RESULTS: The participant interviews revealed 3 main themes related to playing through pain. They are: Listening to your body, Decision making, and Who decides. CONCLUSION: When subelite athletes, striving to be the best in their sport continue to train with the pain of an injury, performance is affected in the short-term and long-term consequences are also possible. Our study provides some insight into the contrasting forces that athletes balance as they decide to continue or to stop.

Creating a safe space for First Nations youth to share their pain.

INTRODUCTION: Indigenous children and youth may be quiet about the way they express their pain and hurt which is in contrast to how health professionals are trained to assess it. OBJECTIVES: The aim was to understand how youth from 4 First Nation communities express pain using narratives and art-based methods to inform culturally appropriate assessment and treatment. METHODS: This qualitative investigation used a community-based participatory action methodology to recruit 42 youth between 8 and 17 years of age to share their perspectives of pain using ethnographic techniques including a Talking Circle followed by a painting workshop. Physical pain perspectives were prominent in circle conversations, but emotional pain, overlapping with physical, mental, and spiritual pain perspectives, was more evident through paintings. Art themes include causes of pain and coping strategies, providing a view into the pain and hurt youth may experience. Youth were more comfortable expressing emotional and mental pain through their artwork, not sharing verbally in conversation. RESULTS: Circle sessions and artwork data were themed using the Indigenous Medicine Wheel. Content of the circle conversations centered on physical pain, whereas paintings depicted mainly emotional pain (eg, crying or loneliness; 74% n = 31) with some overlap with physical pain (eg, injuries; 54%), mental pain (eg, coping strategies; 31%), and spiritual pain (eg, cultural symbols; 30%). Common threads included hiding pain, resilience, tribal consciousness, persistent pain, and loneliness. CONCLUSION: Once a safe space was created for First Nation youth, they provided a complex, culturally based understanding of the pain and coping experience from both an individual and community perspective. These engaging, culturally sensitive research methods provide direction for health providers regarding the importance of creating a safe space for young people to share their perspectives.

A Qualitative Study of Doctors of Chiropractic in a Nova Scotian Practice-based Research Network: Barriers and Facilitators to the Screening and Management of Psychosocial Factors for Patients With Low Back Pain.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess chiropractors' awareness of clinical practice guidelines for low back pain and to identify barriers and facilitators to the screening and management of psychosocial factors in patients with low back pain. METHODS: This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework with 10 Nova Scotian chiropractors who were members of a practice-based research network. RESULTS: The participants correctly identified what the guidelines generally recommend and described the value of psychosocial factors; however, none of the participants could name specific clinical practice guidelines for low back pain. We identified 6 themes related to barriers and facilitators for chiropractors screening and managing psychosocial factors. The themes revolved around the participants' desire to fulfill patients' anatomy-focused treatment expectations and a perceived lack of training for managing psychosocial factors. Participants had concerns about going beyond the chiropractic scope of practice, and they perceived a lack of practical psychosocial screening and management resources. Social factors, such as the influence of other health care practitioners, were reported as both barriers and facilitators to screening and managing psychosocial factors. CONCLUSIONS: The participants in this study reported that they mostly treated with an anatomical and biomechanical focus and that they did not always address psychosocial factors identified in their patients with low back pain. Although these findings are limited to Nova Scotian chiropractors, the barriers identified appeared to be potentially modifiable and could be considered in other groups. Low-cost interventions, such as continuing education using evidence-informed behavior change techniques, could be considered to address these barriers.

Contemporary biopsychosocial exercise prescription for chronic low back pain: questioning core stability programs and considering context.

This commentary explores the importance of considering the biopsychosocial model and contextual factors when prescribing exercise. Diverse exercise programs for patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) produce similar outcomes, without one specific exercise protocol demonstrating clear superiority. One clear barrier to positive outcomes is poor exercise adherence. We suggest that there are certain common contextual factors present in all exercise prescription scenarios that may impact adherence and health-related outcomes. While challenging common core stability exercise prescription, we present an argument for enhancing and intentionally shaping the following contextual factors: the therapeutic alliance, patient education, expectations and attributions of therapeutic success or failure, and mastery or cognitive control over a problem. Overall, this commentary argues that to improve exercise adherence and outcomes in the CLBP population, the context in which exercise is delivered and the meaning patients embody need to be considered and shaped by clinicians.

Cet article explore l'importance de considérer le modèle biopsychosocial et les facteurs contextuels avant de prescrire des exercices. Divers programmes d'exercices pour les patients qui souffrent de lombalgie chronique produisent des résultats semblables, sans qu'un protocole d'exercices particulier démontre une supériorité claire. Un obstacle évident à l'atteinte de résultats positifs est le fait de ne pas persister à faire les exercices. Nous laissons entendre qu'il existe certains facteurs contextuels communs dans tous les scénarios de prescription d'exercices pouvant avoir des répercussions sur la persistance et les résultats axés sur la santé. Tout en contestant la prescription d'exercices communs de stabilisation du tronc, nous présentons un argument en faveur de l'accroissement et l'élaboration intentionnelle des facteurs contextuels suivants : l'alliance thérapeutique, la sensibilisation du patient, les attentes et les attributions du succès ou de l'échec thérapeutique, ainsi que la maîtrise ou le contrôle cognitif d'un problème. Dans l'ensemble, cet article soutient qu'afin d'améliorer la persistance à effectuer les exercices et les résultats au sein de la population atteinte de lombalgie chronique, le contexte dans lequel l'exercice est fourni et la signification exprimée par le patient doivent être pris en considération par les cliniciens.

'I didn't pay her to teach me how to fix my back': a focused ethnographic study exploring chiropractors' and chiropractic patients' experiences and beliefs regarding exercise adherence.

AIM: To inform future research and exercise prescription for patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP), this study explored chiropractors' and chiropractic patients' experiences and beliefs regarding the barriers and facilitators to prescribed exercise adherence. METHODS: A focused ethnographic approach was used involving 16 semi-structured interviews, including pilot interviews (n = 4) followed by interviews with chiropractors (n = 6) and chiropractic patients with CLBP (n = 6). RESULTS: Barriers and facilitators to prescribed exercise adherence revolved around four themes: diagnostic and treatment beliefs motivating behavior, passive-active treatment balance, the therapeutic alliance and patient-centered care, and exercise delivery. CONCLUSION: Exercise adherence may be facilitated in patients with CLBP with simple exercise prescription changes made by chiropractors. However, changing chiropractors' and patients' diagnostic and treatment beliefs that are barriers to exercise adherence appears challenging. Training chiropractors in pain neuroscience education and the intentional use of behavior change techniques warrants future investigation.

OBJECTIF: Pour fournir de l'information sur les recherches futures et les exercices prescrits aux patients souffrant de lombalgies (LC), cette étude consistait à examiner les expériences et les croyances de chiropraticiens et de patients qui constituent des obstacles à la fidélité ou des facteurs qui la favorisent. MÉTHODOLOGIE: Étude ethnographique comportant 16 entrevues semi-structurées et des entrevues pilotes (n = 4) suivies d'entrevues avec des chiropraticiens (n = 6) et des patients souffrant de LC (n = 6). RÉSULTATS: Les obstacles à la fidélité aux exercices prescrits et les éléments qui la favorisent sont liés aux quatre points suivants: croyances sur le diagnostic et le traitement motivant le comportement, équilibre entre traitement passif et traitement actif, alliance thérapeutique et soins centrés sur le patient et fourniture d'exercices. CONCLUSION: Chez les patients souffrant de LC, de simples changements d'exercices apportés par le chiropraticien pourraient favoriser la fidélité aux exercices. Cependant, il semble difficile de changer des croyances sur le diagnostic et le traitement qui s'opposent à l'observance. Un examen plus approfondi de la pertinence d'une formation en neurosciences de la douleur et du recours intentionnel à des techniques servant à changer le comportement serait justifié.