Chronic Spinal Pain (CSP) including neck and back pain is the most common musculoskeletal disorder and is considered a major health problem today. However, most treatments deemed appropriate in the management of CSP have demonstrated limited effectiveness, including Physiotherapy. It appears that health- care professionals are not identifying the psychosocial (e.g.fear, anxiety and depression) or lifestyle factors (e.g. insomnia, obesity and inactivity) that are central to the patient’s perception of their pain. Ignorance of these factors may explain the poor effectiveness of Physiotherapy and other treatments for CSP.
As a result, an inherent need for further training has been identified and training courses for Physiotherapists with regard to management of CSP have recently come to the fore. However inconsistencies with regard to implementation of these new holistically driven skills after training still exist.
In an attempt to bridge the gap between training and implementation of an effective approach to treatment in CSP, Dr. Kieran O’Sullivan and colleagues trained Physiotherapists and succedded in changing their beliefs. As part of this initiative they went on to train a subgroup of Physiotherapists for further study in which individualised treatment versus treatment in a group setting would be assessed in a population of CSP patients. In addition to the measures that will be collected as part of that study, the aim of this study is to gain an insight into the challenges that Physiotherapists face. Their self-perceived limitations to the assessment and treatment of these patients post- training will also be explored.