Jennifer Trueland's lead article in Frontline Magazine about innovative pain therapy for chronic regional pain syndrome.

Dr David Butler and Dr Lorimer Moseley are acknowledged as pioneers of graded motor imagery as part of a three stage process culminating in mirror therapy for the treatment of pain such as complex regional pain syndrome. Jennifer Trueland's article is well worth a read as it's a good explanation of the three step process recommended by our Australian doctors of physiotherapy.

Promising new treatment for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome - Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Feb. 7, 2010) reports — "Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered that treating the immune system of patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CPRS) leads to a significant reduction in pain."

"The results of this study may change the future treatment of patients with CRPS, and have an impact on research in other severe chronic pain areas."

Acording to Wikipedia Intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) is used as treatment for immune deficiencies, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The precise mechanism by which IVIG suppresses harmful inflammation has not been definitively established but is believed to involve the inhibitory Fc receptor. 

Professor Paul Zollinger's Netherlands research showed that you can prevent the development of CRPS post colles wrist fracture by taking vitamin c after injury. It is thought that inflammation plays a part in CRPS. I wonder if it is the ability of this treatment to suppress inflammation that makes it so effective. 


Andreas Goebel, Andrew Baranowski, Konrad Maurer, Artemis Ghiai, Candy Mccabe, and Gareth Ambler. Intravenous Immunoglobulin Treatment of the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: A Randomized Trial. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2010; 152: 152-158 DOI: 10.1059/0003-4819-152-3-201002020-00006 

New website - Hospital News.

Check out the new medical website Hospital News. I hope that they post news about the new brain science and the implications for pain. You'll find a range of topics including pain articles.

Great strategies for coping with pain.

How to Cope with Pain has another great post on strategies to help manage pain. Recommended!

Brilliant explanation of mirror therapy by Neurotropian.

Matthias Weinberger has the blog Neurotropian. He is a Physiotherapist extraordinaire in my opinion, is passionate about the new science of pain management and promotes awareness and educates in this brilliant blog. Matthias is also a very talented photographic artist. I encourage you to bookmark his site and visit often. I go back and read his posts several times as there is so much information and good sense in them.

Neurotropian blog has a series of invaluable posts about "mirror therapy". I recommend you watch the video of Ramachandran before Mirror Box Therapy Part I.

• Mirror Box Therapy Part I describes how easily the brain can be changed by vision. Click on rotating spiral to show you how. He presents the science of "Somatosensory maps being re-modeled so that the pain is gone (forever)" because the brain is restructured. Please note that from my observation, if pain returns as soon as you stop mirror therapy, there may be an ongoing pathology or mechanical problem which needs addressing. Note the fantastic results with Iraq veterans in Walter Reid trials.
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• Mirror Box Therapy Part II talks again of the brain's plasticity. With his gift for making the difficult seem simple Mathias helps us understand just how our brain can change in ways that benefit us.

• Mirror Box Therapy Part III talks about the virtual body in the brain and distortion of images. In my case if I've had pain for a long time my image of my body part becomes distorted eg I become convinced that my leg is swollen. Measuring shows me that it's not but in my mind it is. Mirror therapy stops the pain and returns the image in my brain to normal. Again this section is interesting and explained in such a way that it is easy to understand.

• Mirror Box Therapy Part IV specifically talks about CRPS and mentions the limb laterality left/right recognition problem. This is the best explanation I've found about this. In previous posts I talked about Noi Group's Recognize program. I think the cards they now have would have been much better for me as I have a big problem with recognizing left and right hands. This post is devoted to feedback from the body to the brain and is most important. I recommend you take time and read this section.Also check out this link to graded motor imagery.

• Mirror Box Therapy Part V has some really good links. Hubmed is brilliant. I've bookmarked a number of other links thanks to Neurotopian.

• Mirror Box Therapy Part VI - as the expression goes "from pain to possibilities".  This section is just fascinating. Read it and bookmark "Neurotopian"  in your favourites. I'll be checking regularly and hope at some point there will be the opportunity to get updates by email as you can with Blogger.
• Mirror Box Therapy Part VII covers frequently asked questions. It provides answers about side effects, lengths of sessions, where to get boxes and what to do.
  

Pain and the brain - Dr Lorimer Moseley will speak at American Physical Therapists Association Combined Sectors Meeting In San Diego.

Dr Lorimer Moseley will speak on the topic Pain and the Brain (the body in the mind).

Sponsored by Women’s Health the course will be held on 
Friday, February 19 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM    (Course Level – Multiple Level) - 0.300 CEUs
This lecture focuses on recent advances in the understanding of how pain is produced by the human brain, how the brain changes when pain persists and how this might become part of the problem for people with persistent pain. The lecture works from theoretic models to cross sectional studies and finally clinical trials and pragmatic recommendations for clinical practice. 


If you have contacts in this area please pass on this message.

Physicians for patients has a new crps/rsd health tracker.

NEW online support for patients, family and supporters of those with CRPS/RSD.

 

Art Kaminski, MD of Stanford University reminded me today about a new website, physicians for patients.

He said,  "We are trying to spread the word about a new health tracker we have developed for crps / rsd patients. The idea is to have a tool so that you can track your symptoms and see what may be contributing to them.

We will also be looking for associations. Our hope is to identify correlations between symptoms, daily activities, medications, and the environment. This will help us to better understand CRPS and hopefully to guide us to new potential treatments.

In order to identify statistically significant associations, we need a very large number of people to participate.
We are trying to spread the word about a new health tracker we have developed for crps / rsd patients.

The idea is to have a tool so that you can track your symptoms and see what may be contributing to them.

We will also be looking for associations. Our hope is to identify correlations between symptoms, daily activities, medications, and the environment. This will help us to better understand CRPS and hopefully to guide us to new potential treatments.

In order to identify statistically significant associations, we need a very large number of people to participate."

Physicians for Patients (P4P) is a group of doctors dedicated to helping people online in a way to help improve the availability of physicians.

http://crps.physiciansforpatients.com/

We have JUST started this website for RSD/CRPS patients.

Patients, family, and supporters of those with RSD/CRPS can ask a dedicated board certified RSD/CRPS specialist any questions they may have! (everything is FREE.)

The idea is to give a resource to people that need alternative opinions, information, or have limited access to health care (either no RSD specialist accessible, long wait times, uninsured, or simply can't afford it).

This way it is easier for a smaller number of physicians to help a larger number of people.

Although there is no actual medical advice, you can receive critical medical information from a physician exactly when you need it.

Dr. Colantonio is the doctor. He is board certified pain medicine and anesthesiology (so he is up to speed on nerve blocks, etc..). He trained at Duke University and Oregon Health and Science University.

Please forward this information to others that may benefit from this resource.
(we are JUST getting started so there are not a lot of folks on the site yet. But Dr. Colantonio is there and ready to answer any questions!)

Check out How To Cope with Pain's post on Breathing exercises for pain.

How To Cope with Pain has some excellent self help posts. Here's this week's offering with some practical ways to ease pain.

Mirror neurons - watching someone else being touched relieves pain?

Towards the end of the talk, 6.45mins, says that merely watching a person being massaged can relieve phantom limb pain. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome pain can be relieved in a similar way to phantom limb pain. Treatments such as mirror therapy and guided imagery have been used with some success. Is it possible that watching someone else being massaged on a corresponding limb to the CRPS patient's might relieve their pain?

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