The biomedical approach to people living with pain, is as useful as a chocolate teapot!

Comment from Pete Moore

Yesterday (5th August 2023) I saw this post by Lars Avemarie Actually the headline caught my eye “The biomedical approach to people living with pain, is as useful as a chocolate teapot #SelfMgtLife”

The biomedical approach to people living with persistent pain isn't useful.  It's been used as long as I can remember, which is about 27yrs and it hasn't decreased the number of people now living with persistent pain, both here in the UK and around the world. So why is it still taught in most medical schools?  To be honest, I have asked that question for years and not really received a good answer. The only answer I have come up with is that isn't the experience or expertise to teach the pain self-management model within the medical schools, hence why it is rare to see it on their curriculums. 

One last thing…when I have asked healthcare professionals who say they use this model, I ask them about the Social part. I tend to get vague answers. Once people have had persistent pain for more than three months, other factors come into play. Social factors.

Check our Lars article below.

It seems trendy to bastardize the BPS approach to people living with pain, while woefully ignoring that the BPS approach is a large step forward compared with the dogmatic and outdated biomedical approach for people living with pain. The narrow and dehumanizing care based upon the biomedical model has not helped the many people living with pain!

Yes, the BPS approach is not perfect and is often applied in a fragmented manner. But any model our minds can conceive of is potentially flawed and biased toward what we currently know. 

But it is currently the best explanatory model of what impacts pain, that we have thought of, with our current and potentially flawed knowledge base.

But when that is said, the BPS approach still is a whole lot better that the alternative, the refuted and inhumane biomedical approach to people living with pain!

“You cannot separate out the biology from the psychosocial, they're all present all the time, they all matter, all the time. Not just for pain, for our very existence.” Joletta Belton

“All people experience pains as biopsychosocial experiences, no matter what the origin” Dr. Bronnie Lennox Thompson, PhD

“It’s evident that all pain is a psychological experience and therefore will be influenced by our current goals, past experiences and predictions for the future. And these aspects of attention, motivation, memory and decision-making are present in all of us and for every sensory experience.” Dr.  Bronnie Lennox Thompson, PhD

“The elephant in the room is the medical model, which healthcare workers are trained in. It’s useful for health conditions, but for persistent pain, it’s as useful as a chocolate teapot. Progress is painfully slow when it comes to healthcare.  Supported selfmgt has been around now for some years, but it seems many healthcare workers are unaware of it, or, know of it but not confident to deliver it. 

I’m sure over the years the penny will drop and healthcare will improve.  Healthcare workers in 100 years time will look at how persistent pain is managed now and say, how did the manage so badly. Why didn’t they involve the patient and get them back in the driving seat sooner.” Pete Moore

“Pain is always the synthesis of the person's pathophysiology, their history, their beliefs and emotions, their planned future and their social context. We can't get away from the fact that we see people who have chosen tō come and see us - that action in itself is full of meaning.

Don't over simplify what is a complex series of factors! Treat people as people, not lumps of tissue. You have no idea what inadvertent messages you leave a person with, helpful or unhelpful. And every acute pain adds to the memories that person carries to the next painful experience.” Dr. Bronnie Lennox Thompson, PhD