Myositis and Patient Safety

Myositis Treatment - Novel Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation

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Pain is a global phenomenon in which it has been estimated that 20% of adults and 8% of children suffer from at any one time of whom 10% suffer chronic pain. Pain is the leading reason for primary care consultations (80%) and musculoskeletal pain is the commonest reason for work absenteeism. Pain is complex and there are aspects that require better recognition and understanding in order to improve its treatment and management.
Pain has been defined as ‘An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage’. Pain is generally relieved soon after it is perceived. However, for some the sensation persists long after the normal physiological processes of healing have occurred, leading to persistent daily pain which affect a person’s ability to function and to engage socially and/or emotionally and impacts on their quality of life. Pain is not always linked to pathology and as professionals we may not be able to identify its cause. Never the less in such cases it is important to acknowledge that pain reported by the sufferer will have physiological and psychological aspects in addition
to factors that contribute to persistence. The management of pain can involve pharmacological, surgical or non-pharmacological procedures. Successful interventions are dependent on identifying the causes of the pain and recognising
its multi-systemic nature. To address the multi-systemic aspects requires an inter-professional holistic approach involving the expertise of different medical specialists in collaboration with the pain sufferer. Pain sufferers have also requested education about their pain experience but this can only happen if professionals are able to
adequately communicate their understanding of pain.