Chronic Pain Reconsidered: the Role of Neural Circuits in the Brain

Chronic Pain Reconsidered: the Role of Neural Circuits in the Brain is organized by OptumHealth Education (OHE).

Activity opens: 12/10/2019
Activity expires: 12/16/2022

Target Audience:
This activity is designed to meet the educational needs of case managers, health and wellness coaches, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, PAs, physicians, psychologists, social workers, therapists and other HCPs who have an interest in the care of individuals with chronic pain.

Description:
This on-demand webcast is the first part of a three-part series. This series will walk through the physiology of pain, including recent ground-breaking concepts in our understanding of the mechanisms of pain. Faculty will examine the evidence supporting the use of complementary approaches to pain and review research exploring the interrelationships between pain, stress and sleep. Webcasts 2 and 3 will be available early 2020. 

Chronic Pain Reconsidered: The Role of Neural Circuits in the Brain focuses on the contemporary concepts of brain science known as predictive coding. The brain is emerging as the primary generator of pain, even when there is a physical injury– and pain commonly occurs in the absence of nociceptive input. Joins us as Dr. Schubiner describes how to differentiate pain due to nociceptive drivers versus central mechanisms and discusses effective communication strategies to provide health care professionals (HCPs) with the skills to describe central and peripheral mechanisms of pain.

Learning Objectives:
At the end of this educational activity, participants should be able to:
• Explain predictive coding and the role of the brain in pain.
• Determine when the primary pain driver is mainly central or peripheral in nature, or when it is a mixture of the two mechanisms.
• Validate a patient’s pain experience and explain pain mechanisms.
• Outline an approach for the distinction in the treatment of central-mediated versus peripheral-mediated pain.