Goals:

– Learn and critically discuss the latest discoveries regarding central sensitization in chronic pain conditions.
– Better identification of patients with a dominant central sensitization pain pattern. Indeed, central sensitization predicts poor treatment outcome in multiple
– Learn and critically discuss the latest discoveries regarding effective treatment strategies to reduce central sensitization, including pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies.

Content: 

Chronic pain is recognized by the World Health Organization as a central nervous system disease and a globally leading cause of disability and enormous healthcare costs. The discrepancy between tissue damage and the magnitude of pain represents a diagnostic challenge for clinicians. Mounting evidence points towards central (nervous system) sensitization as the reason for this discrepancy. While we used to believe that central sensitization is limited to a number of ‘nonspecific’ chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia, failed back surgery, and chronic whiplash-associated disorders, we now understand that it is common in a large variety of pain conditions, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, upper extremity tendinopathies, headache, post-cancer pain, post-surgical pain, neck pain, low back pain, pelvic pain, visceral and pediatric pain. This webinar will focus on the latest discoveries regarding central sensitization in these pain conditions, to show that recent work allows better identification of those patients with a dominant central sensitization pain pattern, which is crucial to steer treatment. Indeed,  central sensitization predicts poor treatment outcomes in multiple patient populations, typically in response to treatment targeting peripheral tissues (e.g. muscles & joints). The webinar will also share the latest discoveries regarding effective treatment strategies to reduce central sensitization, including pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies. Together, the latest discoveries clear the path towards precision medicine as the most effective way to address the chronic pain pandemic together.

Speaker: Jo Nijs

Jo Nijs is a professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels, Belgium), physiotherapist/manual therapist at the University Hospital Brussels, holder of a Chair on oncological physiotherapy funded by the Berekuyl Academy, the Netherlands, and part of the Visiting Professor program of the University of Gothenburg (Sweden). Jo runs the Pain in Motion international research group (www.paininmotion.be). The primary aim of his research is to improve care for patients with chronic pain. At the age of 45, he has (co-)authored 268 peer-reviewed publications (including papers in high impact journals such as The Lancet, JAMA Neurology, and The Lancet Rheumatology), obtained €10 million grant income, supervised 19 Ph.D. projects to completion, and served more than 300 times as an invited speaker at national and international meetings in 25 countries (including 35 keynotes). He trained >3k clinicians in 99 courses held in 12 countries spread over 4 continents. His work has been cited >7.7k times (h-index: 48), with 26 citations per article (ISI Web of Knowledge). Jo is ranked 3^rd in the world among chronic pain researchers (1^st in Europe; expertscape.com), received the 2017 Excellence in Research Award from the JOSPT (USA), and the 2020 Francqui Collen Chair awarded by the University of Hasselt, Belgium.

Curriculum:

• What is central sensitisation?
• Non-sense of central sensitisation
• Sense of central sensitisation

Webinar Preparation:

Please read the following articles in order to prepare for the webinar:

Central sensitisation in chronic pain conditions: Latest discoveries and their potential for precision medicine”

Nijs J, George SZ, Clauw DJ, Fernández-de-las-Peñas C, Kosek E, Ickmans K, Fernández Carnero J, Polli A, Kapreli E, Huysmans E, Cuesta-Vargas AI, Mani R, Lundberg M, Leysen L, Rice D, Sterling M, Curatolo M. The Lancet Rheumatology 2021; doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(21)00032-1 
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanrhe/article/PIIS2665-9913(21)00032-1/fulltext

This paper will be discussed during the webinar!