Nocebic Narratives of the SIJ - with Dr Thorvaldur Palsson

On this episode of the Words Matter Podcast, Dr Oliver Thomson spoke with Dr Thorvaldur (Valdi) Palsson. They talked about Valdi's excellent recent article (written with Ben Darlow, Greg Lehman and Samatha Bunzli) in Physical Therapy Journal titled "Changing the Narrative in Diagnosis and Management of Pain in the Sacroiliac Joint Area”. See full paper here.

Manual and musculoskeletal therapies and educators have, over the years, placed huge emphasis on the specifics and SIJ movement, function, palpation from both a diagnostics point of view and from the point of view of matching up the specific SIJ movement or positional dysfunction with a specific technique to correct it. Some therapies and therapists have built their career and professional identities on the mystical phenomenon of the SIJ 'dysfunction.

They talked about the the plausibility of manual testing and manual therapy to the SIJ, and the sorts of beliefs that practitioners and patients have in relation to the area. Then they go into the weeds, and discussed that by paying attention to the language that patients use provides us an opportunity to obtain interpretive portrayal of an individuals’ beliefs and experiences.

They also spoke about why words matter in relation to the SIJ regions and language provides an opportunity for us to begin to help shape new beliefs and news experiences in people with LBP/SIJ pain.

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