Facilitators and Barriers in Neuroscience-based Pain Education Programmes in Primary Care Physiotherapy

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Survey: Survey aimed at finding out the barriers and facilitators that Spanish primary care physiotherapists have to implement pain neuroscience-based education programmes in patients with chronic pain.

Study summary

The new approach in pain neuroscience education (PNE) requires specific training for the physiotherapists in charge of applying it. In recent years, public and private initiatives have offered training in different formats, online courses, face to face courses, congresses, that have facilitated access to this knowledge for many professionals. However, this offer lacks a sufficiently deep approach, so that physiotherapists do not develop the necessary skills to put it into practice, in addition to being an area of knowledge in which the concepts need constant updating given the rapid scientific progress.

As with any paradigm shift, there is resistance to change on the part of some professionals, but the extent to which this has a collective impact on the generalization of these interventions is unknown.

From our point of view, lack of training is only one of the aspects that hinder the implementation of PNE. Working conditions (pressure of care, high physiotherapist/population ratios, limited time available) and organizational conditions (dependence on hospital services, lack of vision of this model by the PC team) could be among the main daily difficulties in implementing it.

The main objective of this study is to detect the barriers and facilitators that primary care physiotherapists have to implement programmes based on the new paradigm of pain neuroscience in the treatment of patients with chronic pain.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Association between the characteristics of physiotherapists and their treatment approach in chronic pain. — From May 2023 to November 2023
  Univariate logistic regression between the training of physiotherapists, the barriers experienced, their clinical setting and their available resources (independent variables) and their competency/use of an approach based on pain neuroscience education (dependent variables)

Trial sites (1)

Other trials for the same condition