Projects pain therapy

The relevance of social factors in chronic pain – status: ongoing project, 60 months (2023 – 2028).
This research project is concerned with the urgent need to identify social factors that play an important role in chronic pain and the management of chronic pain in order to be able to address them accordingly. The following research objectives are pursued: 1. exploration of social factors from the patients’ and relatives’ perspective. 2. identification of relevant social and environmental factors. Finally, the results from the qualitative and quantitative survey will be evaluated in order to develop recommendations on how social and environmental factors can be better recorded and addressed in the therapeutic context.

Embodiment techniques to expand the understanding of illness in chronic pain patients: An interdisciplinary study of the “Laying in the Hands” method – Status: ongoing project, 24 months (2024 – 2025)
Chronic pain affects the everyday lives and mental health of many people. A pure focus on somatic causes and therapeutic approaches often neglects the complex, multifactorial background of pain, including psychological, social and lifestyle-related aspects. This one-sidedness can lead to unnecessary operations, misuse of medication and incorrect treatment. The project proposes the use of embodiment techniques, in particular the “put in your hands” method. These techniques aim to give patients a deeper understanding of the interaction between body and psyche and thus broaden their perspective on illness. The project combines phenomenological, therapeutic and neuroscientific approaches to provide chronic pain patients with a more individualized and effective therapy.

An interdisciplinary workshop: From Pain to Suffering – Determining the Driving Factors of Burden and Disability in Chronic Pain
A central goal of the workshop was to examine why some people suffer from pain and its limiting effects, while others do not, and to investigate the implications of these findings for research and clinical practice. By bringing together clinicians, philosophers and empirical scientists from various disciplines, as well as people with chronic pain and patient representatives, the aim was to initiate a meaningful debate that would help eliminate conceptual ambiguities, stimulate new lines of research, and lay the foundation for a differentiated framework within which pain-related suffering can be discussed and examined from an interdisciplinary perspective. The goal was to create a consistent conceptual and theoretical basis for future work aimed at examining how pain-related suffering is caused and how it can be combated. When integrating clinical practitioners, sufficient attention was to be paid to the perspective of lived experience and the practical consequences of conceptual and empirical findings for treatment and communication with patients.
The results of the 3-day workshop, which took place in 2024, are still being evaluated.

Patient funding / Treatment costs
Arachnopathy is a disease of the arachnoid membrane, which is the membrane that surrounds the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). When this membrane is chronically inflamed, it causes obstruction of CSF circulation and restricted movement of nerve strands. These restrictions cause chronic pain in the lower back, as well as tingling, numbness, or weakness in the legs. Since the symptoms can be the same as those of a herniated disc, misdiagnosis can easily occur. The foundation supports individual cases where health insurance does not cover treatment costs for acute pain relief.
Patient funding / Assistance services
Often, costs for assistance services, such as the installation of an urgently needed home emergency call system, or a vehicle modification for transporting electric wheelchairs to maintain the patient’s mobility, are not covered by health insurance. In individual cases, the HEAD-Genuit Foundation provides funding for such expenses, after consultation with the applicant and their health insurance. The aim is to improve the quality of life for patients with chronic arachnopathy.
Travel grants
The presentation of one’s own research projects at international conferences and participation in international conferences is an important building block in a scientific career. The HEAD-Genuit Foundation provides travel grants for the active participation of scientists and doctoral students in the field of pain research at conferences abroad, as well as lecture trips abroad.

Chronic Pain – a Problem of Contemporary Society
Status: completed project, duration 2 years and 9 months (July 2019 to March 2022). This project was a follow-up to “New Perspectives on Chronic Pain.” Through a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between society and chronic pain, this project aimed to investigate why chronic pain is not addressed in social theory.
Publications:
Chronic Pain as an Existential Challenge
Chronic pain patients’ need for recognition and their current struggle
Chronic pain as a blindspot in the diagnosis of a depressed society. On the implication of the connection between depression and chronic pain for interpretations of contemporary society
 
New Perspectives on Chronic Pain
Status: completed project, (July 2017 to June 2019). In view of future demographic changes with an increasingly aging society, an increase in pain conditions is expected. However, since several years often pass before specific pain medical treatment is provided, pain chronification is favored or even caused. The reductionist understanding of chronic pain that is prevalent in medicine today does not take into account that chronic pain often cannot always be localized in the body, which makes a clear definition and therapy of pain difficult. Therefore, this study attempted to ask about the possibility of a constructive relationship with chronic pain and to elaborate on the further development of new pain models and strategies for coping with pain. This was intended to indirectly contribute to better pain care in the healthcare system.
Publications:
From Why to What For – on the Significance of a Philosophical-Existentialist Attitude in the Treatment of Patients with Chronic Pain
Chronic Pain and Society – Sociological Analysis of a Complex Entanglement
On the Phenomenology of Pain and its Ethical Implications

 
Psychology Seminars
Status: completed project. Subsidizing seminars on the topic “Living with Chronic Pain” for physicians, medical professionals, volunteers, and self-help groups. The seminars were organized and conducted by various institutions and facilities. The goal is to develop new perspectives and forms of communication for dealing with pain patients. A particular question here is how to listen to the pain patient and encourage them to deal with their pain and nurture their feelings and energies, without caregivers or doctors tapping into their own resources or no longer perceiving the patient as an individual.