In reviewing 2010 for BiM, we wanted to gather together in one place the gems and nuggets that have been written in the last year. A big big THANK YOU to the 40 writers who have taken time out to explain their research and thinking as well as the many readers and commenters to the posts in various places on the interweb - the blog, facebook, … [Read more...]
The painful legacy of torture
December 13, 2010 By 2 Comments
Torture has received a great deal of deserved media attention in recent years. In large part this is due to people who should know better somewhat shamelessly jumping through legal hoops in attempts to distinguish which ways of abusing their fellow humans are acceptable and distinct from torture. This should be surprising in the current millennium … [Read more...]
Acupuncture, some dodgy maths and a cracking review paper
December 6, 2010 By 49 Comments
I have a challenge for you. Imagine you’re in ancient China and you’ve had this idea that health and disease hang on the flow of energy through invisible energy pathways called meridians that can be manipulated by applying needles in certain specific points. How do you go about systematically validating this theory? How do you know where the … [Read more...]
Location Location Location. Acupuncture and chronic shoulder pain – CAM or Sham?
October 12, 2010 By 11 Comments
Having written a number of posts on acupuncture (see here, here, and here) I guess my particular biases are reasonably apparent. So imagine my surprise when a large RCT published in the journal “Pain” reports a significant and substantial effect of Chinese acupuncture in comparison with sham acupuncture or conventional orthopaedic therapy for … [Read more...]
Now then, Pay Attention!
October 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment
To mark 10 years of Nature Reviews Neuroscience this month the journal has produced a kind of retrospective of the most highly cited reviews from each year. I got around to reading the 2002 “winner” from Maurizio Corbetta and Gordon Shulman which focused on attention networks in the brain, and a quality read it is. The authors build the case … [Read more...]
Psychological obstacles to recovery in back pain: A rumble in the journal
September 23, 2010 By 6 Comments
I’m a little late to this one but an interesting disagreement recently emerged in the letters to the editor in the journal Pain. This focused around a recent study from the impressive Arthritis Research Campaign National Primary Care Centre at Keele University, UK into the psychological obstacles to recovery from low back pain. The study … [Read more...]
Misinformed Consent? What not to tell a patient with back pain
August 19, 2010 By 14 Comments
We just came across a fancy patient information form that was given to a patient after an assessment by a clinician. The form just blew our minds (but not in a good way) because it seemed to be the perfect clinical tool for generating ongoing pain and disability, and all by the simple process of ramping up the fear. So, just for fun, we thought … [Read more...]
The morality of magic kisses: Ethics and placebo in physiotherapy
July 26, 2010 By 16 Comments
When my daughter hurts herself, her placebo of choice is a “magic kiss”. This therapeutic intervention must be applied with care specific to the area of injury. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it is very effective. I use placebo freely at home but is it right to do this in the clinic? In a recent post I suggested that we can be more confident … [Read more...]
Paul the Psychic Octopus: A watery lesson in understanding clinical evidence
July 15, 2010 By 2 Comments
So the World Cup justifiably goes to Spain and it seems that Paul, the now world famous psychic octopus, predicted the results. In fact Paul demonstrated a seemingly legendary clairvoyant ability. Wikipedia informs us that he predicted the outcome of all of Germany’s games and the final with unerring accuracy. You may not have realised it … [Read more...]
A bitter-sweet symphony
July 7, 2010 By 2 Comments
Cross-modal associations are intriguing. Why should we prefer to associate certain shapes to certain words? I still remember my brother, although not a psychologist, asking everyone at a family dinner to match the words ‘kiki’ and ‘bouba’ with either a round or spiky shape. If you’re an adept of that kind of entertainment, you might want … [Read more...]
Large flat whites taste stronger than regular flat whites
July 5, 2010 By 1 Comment
Australia is, I think, the home of the Flat White - a coffee that is a bit like a latte with less milk and that has quite recently started infiltrating the UK coffee scene. Of course, Monmouth at Borough Market has been doing a very good flat white for a few years, but then again, in my view, Monmouth at Borough Market is the BEST place for coffee … [Read more...]
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