180: The Paradigm Shift To Cure Chronic Pain for You and Your Patients with Dr. Howard Schubiner

DocWorking: The Whole Physician Podcast

“But if you step back and you’re the parent, what do you want to teach that kid? You want to teach the kid that it’s ok to fall. So, when the kid falls, you smile and say ‘Oops! That was fun, you’re ok buddy! Let’s do it again!’ Right? And that’s what you’re doing to your brain. Because your brain is looking to you; your brain is giving you pain and you’re either freaking out or you’re going ‘Oops that’s silly! I’m ok!”

- Dr. Howard Schubiner, Internist and Pediatrician, Director of the Mind Body Medicine Center at Ascension Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan

Dr. Jen Barna discusses recent breakthroughs in curing chronic pain with esteemed guest, Dr. Howard Schubiner. Dr. Schubiner and colleagues developed Pain Reprocessing Therapy and Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy, chronic pain treatments that focus around curing pain rather than managing pain. Dr. Howard Schubiner offers listeners his key insights as to what he has learned is the best way to confront pain that may be stopping you or your patients from living freely. In today’s episode, Dr. Schubiner discusses neuroplasticity and the effective process in which you can ultimately retrain your brain to move away from pain, rather than continue to be stuck in a negative feedback loop. As physicians, it is often your job to find the source of you or your patients’ pain. Being able to offer solutions to patients in chronic pain can be life-changing for patients and can be very fulfilling to clinicians. Dr. Barna and Dr. Schubiner also discuss the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral based therapy and other practices that have proven to help manage pain, to cope with pain, but not to cure it. The paradigm shift that is now occurring is to recognize that research has demonstrated with randomized, controlled trials that chronic pain, even pain that has lasted for decades, can be alleviated in a short amount of time with lasting results using Pain Reprocessing Therapy and Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy.

Links to Podcast episodes mentioned:

- Episode 163: Part 1: Emotional Awareness & Expression Therapy for You & Your Patients with Dr. David Clarke

- Episode 164: Part 2: Emotional Awareness & Expression Therapy for You & Your Patients with Dr. David Clarke

-Episode 172: Healthcare Burnout & PTSD with Dr. James Zender

Documentary:

This Might Hurt- https://www.thismighthurtfilm.com/

“This Might Hurt is a documentary that offers solutions to reduce and unlearn chronic pain. The film follows three chronic pain patients who have spent years searching for answers. Desperate for relief, they enter a new medical program — run by Dr. Howard Schubiner — that focuses on uncovering hidden causes of pain, and retraining their brains to switch the pain off.”

Books:

Unlearn Your Pain: A 28-day Process to Reprogram Your Brain by Howard Schubiner, MD with Michael Betzold

Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression by Howard Schubiner, MD

Hidden From View by Allan Abbass, MD and Howard Schubiner, MD

Websites:

1. Unlearn Your Pain - https://unlearnyourpain.com/
2. The Psychophysiological Disorders Association- https://ppdassociation.org/
3. The Tension Myositis Syndrome Wiki: The PPD/TMS Peer Network- https://www.tmswiki.org/w/index.php?page=The_Tension_Myositis_Syndrome_Wiki
4. The Pain Reprocessing Therapy Center- https://www.painreprocessingtherapy.com/

Videos:

“What is Pain?”- Animated Series by Dr. Howard Schubiner

English: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsJVYZbo6uWrKc57MDUL1vGciEGnPYrV9

Spanish: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsJVYZbo6uWoBAVQxNhQhz618T_HHwfDX

Online Programs & Apps:

1. Freedom From Chronic Pain
2. Curable
3. lin.health
4. The DOC Journey

Other Recommended Authors:

1. Dr. David Clarke
2. Alan Gordon, LCSW
3. David Hanscom, MD
4. Georgie Oldfield, Pain Specialist
5. David Schechter, MD

Dr. Howard Schubiner is an internist and the director of the Mind Body Medicine Center at Ascension Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan. He is a Clinical Professor at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and has authored more than 100 publications in scientific journals and books. He lectures regionally, nationally, and internationally. Dr. Schubiner has consulted for the American Medical Association, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Mental Health. Dr. Schubiner is the author of three books: Unlearn Your Pain, Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression, and Hidden From View, written with Dr. Allan Abbass.

Dr. Schubiner has collaborated extensively with colleagues such as Mark Lumley, Tor Wager, Yoni Ashar and Alan Gordon to develop two novel psychological treatments for chronic pain: Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) and Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), which have been shown to be highly effective in randomized, controlled trials. EAET is now listed as a treatment option in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Pain Management Best Practices Inter-agency Task Force Report.

Dr. Schubiner is part of the team that conducted the Boulder back pain study, along with Tor Wager, Yoni Ashar, Alan Gordon, Christie Uipi and Mark Lumley. This study demonstrated that 75% of the people with chronic back pain treated with a novel therapy called Pain Reprocessing Therapy recovered fully. The study also documented the changes in the brain that occurred with this treatment using function MRI scans.

The documentary This Might Hurt, follows Dr. Schubiner and several of his patients through treatment that focuses on uncovering hidden causes of pain, and retraining their brains to switch the pain off.

“The film had its world premiere at Austin Film Festival and is now in the midst of a two-year community screenings campaign. If you’re interested in hosting a virtual live screening, we encourage you to reach out to us at [e-mail]. 100% of the proceeds for This Might Hurt go towards creating affordable community screenings for diverse audiences around the globe.” -https://www.thismighthurtfilm.com/

Dr. Schubiner lives in the Detroit area with his wife of thirty-eight years and has two adult children.

Find full transcripts of DocWorking: The Whole Physician Podcast episodes on the DocWorking Blog

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