Talking to Teens about Pain: A Modified Delphi Study of Adolescent Pain Science Education

Abstract

Background: Persistent pain is a prevalent condition that negatively influences physical, emotional, social and family functioning in adolescents. Pain science education is a promising therapy for adults, yet to be thoroughly investigated for persistent pain in adolescents. There is a need to develop suitable curricula for adolescent pain science education. Methods: An interdisciplinary meeting of 12 clinicians and researchers was held during March 2018 in Adelaide, South Australia. An a priori objective of the meeting was to identify and gain consensus on key learning objectives for adolescent pain science education using a modified-Delphi process. Results and Conclusion: Consensus was reached via a modified Delphi process for seven learning objectives to form the foundation of a curriculum: 1) Pain is a protector; 2) The pain system can become overprotective; 3) Pain is a brain output; 4) Pain is not an accurate marker of tissue state; 5) There are many potential contributors to anyone's pain; 6) We are all bioplastic and; 7) Pain education is treatment. Recommendations are made for promising areas for future research in adolescent pain science education.

The effect of a pain educational video intervention upon child pain‐related outcomes: A randomized controlled study

“…In order to make the video engaging and interactive, the children were invited to use accompanying materials (see Figures 2 and 3) according to the instructions in the video. The content of the video was based on the PNE4Kids curriculum (Pas et al, 2018) with four of the seven target concepts of PNE, as described by Leake et al, (2019) (Leake et al, 2019), being discussed in the video. The four included target concepts were as follows: 1) Pain is a protector, 2) Pain is a brain output, 3) Pain is not an accurate marker of tissue state and 4) There are many potential contributors to anyone's pain.…”

Talking to Children and Families about Chronic Pain: The Importance of Pain Education—An Introduction for Pediatricians and Other Health Care Providers

“…In a third step, the scientific knowledge about pain can be deepened; this is where the actual pain education takes place. Using a modified Delphi process, an interdisciplinary group of health care providers and researchers recently identified and gained consensus on seven key learning objectives for adolescent pain science education: (1) Pain is a protector; (2) The pain system can become overprotective; (3) Pain is a brain output; (4) Pain is not an accurate marker of tissue state; (5) There are many potential contributors to anyone’s pain; (6) We are all bioplastic and; (7) Pain education is treatment [ 72 ]. Based on these learning objectives, patients should be able to understand that pain serves as a protector and is therefore our lifesaving warning system in many cases [ 73 ]: Acute pain protects the organism from harm by alerting us whenever there seems to be threat to our health and well-being.…”

Creating online animated videos to reach and engage youth: Lessons learned from pain science education and a call to action

“…Pain science education also referred to as “pain neuroscience education,” “therapeutic neuroscience education,” and “Explaining Pain” (among others) 7 focuses on explaining the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying pain 8 . Pain science education provides a foundation for pain management education via an understanding of the principles that guide biopsychosocial interventions for persistent pain, 9 fitting within collaborative frameworks such as the Knowledge to Action process 10 . As an educational intervention, it is one possible component of a broader knowledge translation strategy, that could also comprise many other strategies 11 .…”