Physiotherapists in Northern Ireland treat many different conditions including the condition profiled below.

Pain Behaviours

When we hurt ourselves it is usual for us to give some indication of the fact that we are injured and these behaviours we exhibit are caused pain behaviours. Typical pain behaviours are non-verbal such as groaning or moaning, grimacing, holding the painful part, lying down, seeking a space away from people or taking painkillers. These behaviours are normal and are a form of communication, letting other people know we have a problem so that they can help us if we require some assistance to manage our injury. These behaviours allow others to assist us more quickly than if we had to think about it and ask them, which would be difficult immediately after a painful injury.

However, such pain behaviours can become chronic, a sort of ingrained habit, and people may use them to communicate daily to people around them about how they are doing that day. This type of communication, being non-verbal, can be misconstrued as it is not clear what is being communicated, leading to incorrect guesses and unwanted actions. Non-assertive communication can be very irritating for those around the person as it is never clear what they want and when something is done it is wrong.

The Facet Joints

The facet joints, also known as the zygapophysial joints, are small synovial joints like the joints of our fingers, but with much flatter surfaces which give the name .facet. to them. They are made up of part of the vertebra above and part below, are lined by articular cartilage and surrounded by a joint capsule lined with synovial membrane. In the lumbar spine the facets joints act to stabilise whilst the area is under compression and to resist excessive movement between the individual vertebrae. This protects the intervertebral discs from damage from inappropriate ranges of movement.

The joint surfaces of the facet joints vary in orientation through the spine, allowing and preventing different movements. In the neck both rotation and flexion/extension is permitted, in the thoracic spine rotation is the dominant movement and in the lumbar spine flexion and extension is permitted and rotation is limited. With disc degeneration in the lumbar spine the loads on the lumbar facet joints can be great and result in osteoarthritic changes in these joints which can be symptomatic and result in low back pain. Facet joint pain occurs in a significant proportion of people with low back pain and can be difficult to manage.

Physiotherapists in Northern Ireland have contributed some of the many articles on this site such as the one extracted below.

Everyone suffers difficulties and adversity of some kind, examples of which are mental illness, disability, pain, illness and stress. Not everything is under our control and we have widely varying ways and success of dealing with these stresses. How content we are with our lives and how effective we are at life management depends on our ability to cope with these events. If we can be realistic and generate a plan for managing then success is the more likely outcome. What happens to us when we suffer setbacks is complex and we need to address several parts of the situation.All the difficulties in life which challenge us strongly have one thing in common, they involve loss. When we get a pain problem we lose the normal comfort of our bodies which is a loss as we find we cannot sit for so long, drive so far, dig the garden as we used to. Some of these changes are slow changes which inevitable follow becoming older but even these can be challenging to cope with and accept. How much harder ...

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