Physiotherapists in Hertford treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Chronic Neck Pain

The risk of long term neck pain and disability has been the subject of much investigation to try and stop this disabling, painful and costly condition developing. The warning signs which indicate a risk of developing this condition are known as yellow flags and are mostly to do with our understanding and emotional state. Physical factors are much less important unless they are very high levels of pain after an injury. Yellow flags include believing that the neck pain is due to serious injury or damage to the neck tissues; avoiding activity or movement due to fear of causing damage; resting excessively; waiting for a cure for the pain instead of working on it themselves; developing depression and becoming withdrawn; not improving over a couple of weeks; believing that hurt equals harm and that disability is likely.

These symptoms and attitudes can sneak up on someone so it is important to work at getting mobile and back to normal as soon as possible after injury or an episode of neck pain. It is useful to analyse how the recovery is going and take steps to fix any of the problems that the patient or an adviser identifies as relevant.

Fatigue or Tiredness with Musculoskeletal Conditions

Tiredness or fatigue is an extremely common accompanying condition to a large number of musculoskeletal conditions. Patients may rate fatigue just as important and severe as their pain problems but there is little consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of this distressing condition. Fatigue has been studied in good quality trials of people with arthritic conditions. If fatigue is an issue it is commonly present in varying degrees from a low level of weariness to complete exhaustion. Fatigue may also be shattering and force the person to lie down and rest or sleep, is not necessarily related to activity at all and can involve cognitive faculties such as thinking and memory.

Tiredness interferes with all aspects of a patient.s life including employment, personal relationships, normal daily chores, looking after children, social life and leisure. Patients often save energy for essential activities such as work or chores at the expense of a social life or any kind of recreational activity. Typical consequences of this forced inability to participate in normal life are frustration, anger, resentment and depression. Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome overlap in their presentation of pain and tiredness symptoms, with fibromyalgia typically exhibiting pain as its main symptom but accompanied sometimes by high fatigue levels.