Just for fun, what a novel idea when you live in chronic pain, right?, take the following questionnaire. It “tests’ what you know about the latest research findings regarding pain and the brain. The answers may surprise you and, perhaps, crack a wedge in some preconceived notions you have regarding pain.
As in many cases, knowledge can bring power and the enlightened potential for change ~ better understanding the nature of pain definitely has the ability to do just that.
Enjoy!
* And once again we are indebted here to the amazing work of Dr. Lorimer Moseley and his team of pain researchers down in Australia.
Using a piece of scratch paper number it from 1-10 and behind each mark your response to the following questions as true (T) or false (F). If unsure, just take your best guess.
Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire
1. It is possible to have pain and not know about it.
2. When part of your body is injured, special pain receptors convey the pain message to your brain.
3. Pain only occurs when you are injured or at risk of being injured.
4. When you are injured, special receptors convey the danger message to your spinal cord.
5. Special nerves in your spinal cord convey ‘danger’ messages to your brain.
6. Nerves adapt by increasing their resting level of excitement.
7. Chronic pain means that an injury hasn’t healed properly.
8. Worse injuries always result in worse pain.
9. Descending neurons (the pathways from the brain that produce movement) are always inhibitory (impeding, “cautious” and/or slowing down).
10. Pain occurs whenever you are injured.
11. When you injure yourself, the environment that you are in will not affect the amount of pain you experience, as long as the injury is exactly the same.
12. The brain decides when you will experience pain.
Catley, MJ, O’Connell, NE, & Moseley, GL. A Rasch analysis of psychometric properties. Journal of Pain, 2013; 14(8): 818-827.
To check your answers please click here
