Pain education for physiotherapists: is it time for curriculum reform?

Pain is the most common reason that people seek physiotherapy care. Despite major advances in our understanding of pain in the past 40 years, the burden of pain worldwide remains enormous, whether gauged in humanitarian, health care, or financial terms (National Pain Strategy 2010). Physiotherapists have an ethical imperative as health professionals to have an accurate understanding of the human pain experience so as to best help those seeking their care. This means physiotherapists need to be educated appropriately in modern pain neuroscience, so they can assess relevant factors that might modulate the pain experience and provide effective pain management.