European University of Lefke (EUL) Faculty of Health Sciences Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Department Lecturer Specialist physiotherapist Beraat Alptuğ made explanations on “Chronic Pain and Covid-19”.

Alptuğ stated that the Covid-19 outbreak affects the lives and health of people around the world. Alptuğ also said that the experience of living in the pandemic process interrupts daily life in all sectors including those living with chronic pain, including those who are physically healthy, including those who are infected with Covid-19, healthcare providers and basic employees.

Alptuğ; Chronic pain leads to poor quality of life

“Chronic pain is a condition characterized by severe pain that leads to a decrease in the quality of life”, said Alptuğ. Alptuğ stated that individuals with chronic pain due to the pandemic are more likely to get Covid-19 than healthy people, as their treatment possibilities are affected.

Alptuğ listed the important issues for healthcare professionals who are dealing with patients with chronic pain as follows; To ensure the continuity of care and pain medication; use of tele-rehabilitation; maintaining a biopsychosocial management approach; Evaluation and safe execution of approach procedures to prevent morbidity in chronic pain patients; and the need to modify ongoing treatments to reduce the risk of Covid-19.

“Chronic pain should be considered in the context of a biopsychosocial model that sees symptoms as the result of a complex and dynamic interaction between biological, psychological and social factors. Underlying susceptibility mechanisms include genetic factors, previous pain experience, and traumatic. ”Alptuğ pointed out that events that can be physical or emotional, and chronic pain states can be triggered by psychosocial stressors or organ-specific biological factors, which can preferably occur in people with a fragile stress response system.

Alptuğ; Patients’ rates of hospitalization with tele-rehabilitation are decreasing   Alptuğ said, “The Covid-19 outbreak has many features that could potentially increase the prevalence of chronic pain, especially with stressors that last for months. In this context, the place of physiotherapy approaches is important.

By changing the size of the treatment approach with tele-rehabilitation, it increases the possibility of the individual with chronic pain to access treatment”, said Alptuğ and he continued his words as follows; With tele-rehabilitation, patients can gain benefits such as reducing hospitalization rates and preventing re-hospitalizations, shortening the duration of discharge, immediate access to outpatient rehabilitation services, reducing costs and saving time, and the returning to daily life is accelerated with the increase in the quality of life.

As a result, Alptuğ stated that the biopsychosocial approach model is important for individuals with chronic pain, and physiotherapists can offer physical rehabilitation of individuals in this model with different possibilities under all conditions.