February 2010

Managing Pain – Interview with Doctor Leora Kuttner

by Jonathan

Dr Leora Kuttner, PhD is a pediatric clinical psychologist who specializes in children’s pain. She is a Clinical Professor in the Pediatric Department of the University of Briticsh Columbia and BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada.

Dr Leora Kuttner, PhD is a pediatric clinical psychologist who specializes in treating children’s pain. Here, we talk about the techniques she uses to to help children manage their pain, and how these can be used to help adults as well.

Click the play icon on the interview below to listen to a talk we had about managing pain.

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Summary

0:30 – What children do to cope with pain – very practical strategies they use including breathing, visualisation and hypnosis.

2:20 – Fear and breathing – how they are closely connected with pain

3:00 – Comfort as a way to turn your focus away from pain

4:15 – Mind body connection and pain perception, especially with chronic pain

6:00 – Healing and how this is natural for our bodies – a shift in perspective

7:00 – How different treatments work better for kids at different ages

8:41 – Hope, and how central it is in changing patterns to break the cycle of chronic pain

10:20 – Emotions and the important part they have in perceiving pain and helping healing.

Dr. Leora Kuttner is a Clinical Professor in the Pediatric Department of the University of Briticsh Columbia and BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada. Click here to read more about Dr. Leora Kuttner’s book – A Child in Pain

The video below is an excerpt form Dr. Leora Kuttner’s film on helping children control their pain – ‘No Fears, No Tears, 13 Years Later.

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Knee Trigger Points – The Case of Mysterious Falls

by Jonathan

There is one trigger point that behaves differently from all the others in the body. And this story shows how it works.

There was an elderly lady, in her mid eighties who had a number of falls. She was really a grand old dame, and very independent, but because
of the falls, she had become increasingly frightened and was staying home and walking either with a frame or with two walking sticks.

There was no obvious reason why she should be falling – her health was fantastic. All her previous doctors couldn’t find any cause for the falls.

When I saw her, she told me that as she stood on her right leg it felt unstable. So she couldn’t trust it and every now and then would completely
give way so that she fell.

When I examined her, it became more puzzling. She had no nerve problems that would account for this weakness and had only very mild wear and tear in the knee.

Then I made the most striking finding: she had a very active trigger point in her lower thigh.

Vastus Medialis - Knee Collapsing Trigger Point

Vastus Medialis - Knee Collapsing Trigger Point

This particular trigger point is most unusual. Unlike all the other triggers, when you stress it,  this trigger makes the muscle just give way.

I treated the trigger with acupressure, and when I was finished she got to up to test out her leg. She stood on it, hopped a little bit and a huge smile broke over her face.

‘Young man,’ she said ‘that feels completely different.’ She immediately dropped the one walking stick to the ground and strode around my consulting room. Then she waved the second stick around, and dropped it as well.

I picked up her walking sticks, handed them to her and she walked out the into the waiting room with both sticks tucked under her arm!

This was the real ‘throw away your crutches’ experience. It was wonderful, and I owe it to my knowledge of trigger points.

This lady returned for one more treatment, and after that the mysterious falls never returned.

Now, this was one very dramatic case. But over the years I have treated several other elderly people with the same problem.

But I can’t help thinking that there must be many other people round the world who have the same problem with the same simple solution.

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