About the pain sensitivity initiative

Pain sensitivity is known to be a factor in musculoskeletal conditions, neurological disorders and respiratory disorders, covering the patients of just about every clinical practice.

The clinical collection published in InMotion in 2023 has been developed to help clinicians, policymakers and administrators understand pain sensitivity to develop better care pathways for health disorders, while considering the implications of pain sensitivity.

What is pain sensitivity?

Darren Beales FACP and Tim Mitchell FACP have recently offered this definition: ‘Pain sensitivity in the clinical context can be considered as a term used to encompass the phenomena that some people’s experience and perception of pain is enhanced (or reduced) beyond that of others.’

In these two animated videos, we explore pain sensitivity, how to recognise it in the clinic, and how to manage and treat a patient with pain sensitivity.

These animations are a Physiotherapy Research Foundation (PRF) initiative.

Video 1 Recognising pain sensitivity: 

In this video, viewers are introduced to pain sensitivity and encouraged to recognise its signs and symptoms. 

In this video, viewers are introduced to the treatment for pain sensitivity, touching on individualised management and the inclusion of specialists.

About the authors

Darren Beales FACP is a Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist (as awarded by the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2008) and a director at Pain Options in Perth, WA. As a senior research fellow at Curtin University, Darren is undertaking broad research into clinical pain, from the mechanistic understanding of clinical pain to efforts to enhance the management of persistent pain and implementation of knowledge into practice.

Tim Mitchell FACP is a Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist (as awarded by the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2007) and a director of Pain Options. Tim has completed a PhD in the area of low back pain and has a special interest in the translation of logical reasoning into clinical practice. He holds positions with the Australian Physiotherapy Council and the Australian College of Physiotherapists.

Find out more about the Physiotherapy Research Foundation (PRF).

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