Pain

Question: I wonder if you have information on the following: 1) TBIs and a patient with already existing chronic pain. 2) Mild but multiple concussions can be the reason or one of the reasons for chronic pain and how your body perceives chronic pain? 3) Can brain be retrained on this aspect? 4) Do you have any webinars on this or similar subject? This might be far-fetched but thought to ask as we deal with a lot chronic pain in patients.

Answer: As you know, chronic pain can be difficult to manage on its own but with a TBI it can be even worse, given the changes in sensation, perception, emotional functioning, cognitive functioning that can occur following TBI. Multiple concussions may impact a person's perception of pain. You can retrain the brain and many of these treatments for chronic pain involve mindfulness, meditation and biofeedback. The challenge with using these modalities in individuals who have a brain injury they may have issues with insight and may have impaired cognitive processing which may be essential for these treatments to work.