How children unlearn the pain through a movie

Animated film is designed to help children unlearn chronic pain

05/14/2014

An animated film by the German Pediatric Pain Center shows children how they can unlearn chronic pain. It is first taught how the pain arises. Because this can become a self-fulfilling, explains Boris Zernikow, founder and director of the pain center at the Vestische Children and Youth Hospital of the University of Witten / Herdecke in conversation with „Mirror online“. A physical cause would then no longer be recognizable.

Chronic pain without apparent cause is very distressing for children
Chronic pain often greatly reduces the quality of life of those affected. Especially children and adolescents, who have a pronounced urge to move, usually perceive permanent or recurrent complaints as very stressful. In addition, in many cases the pain is not based on a recognizable cause such as an injury or illness. Not infrequently, the small patients are assumed by parents and doctors that they only imagine their symptoms. That's bad because these kids are actually suffering.

At the German Pediatric Pain Center at the Vestische Kinder- und Jugendklinik of the University of Witten / Herdecke in Datteln, those affected are taken seriously. Here no one doubts that the pain „real“ are. Every year around 1,200 young patients come to the center to be rid of pain. Around 350,000 children and adolescents in Germany are affected by chronic pain.

Most patients already have a long ordeal before coming to Dates. Because chronic pain is different from those that disappear again. Sometimes they are stronger, on other days weaker, but they are always there or come back after a short time. This is grueling and difficult to bear for those affected.

Animated film takes children's pain seriously
A special form of help for children and adolescents with chronic pain is the animated film „Understanding the Pain "of the German Pediatric Pain Center, which will be translated into 20 languages ​​in the future. „You do not fool yourself! "Just like in the pain center, the patient's complaints are taken seriously in the film, because the pain is real, even if it is not based on any discernible physical cause, and many find it hard to acknowledge the complaints. if a specific cause is missing, Boris Zernikov told the magazine. „But you can test and prove chronic pain. "Conventional methods usually do not provide relief for this type of pain. „Doctors often do not know enough, "explains the expert. „With medicines they can not help in the long term. The children need to learn how to develop their pain and how to cope with it. "They need to learn, „to unlearn her pain ".

How does chronic pain develop in children??
In the treatment of chronic pain, the children are taught strategies that help them to distract themselves from the pain. Because the complaints are usually in focus when they occur. The strategies can be used successfully even with very severe pain. As Zernikov explains, chronic pain is based on several mechanisms that reinforce and interlink one another. Often, at some point, there was a physical cause for the pain, which was then linked to stressors that, when they re-opened, again triggered pain. In this way, an unwanted feedback loop, from which the person could escape with difficulty, reports the pain expert.

The threshold, from which pain is perceived as such, then sinks continuously, so that at some point not only the pain causes stress but also the stress pain. The physical misperception is reinforced in this way more and more, says Zernikow. Not the intensity of the stimulus plays the decisive role, but rather the stimulus interpretation of the brain. Normally a slight stimulus does not lead to a strong warning signal in the body. In people with chronic pain, however, even light touch, light or noise can cause severe pain and thus an urgent warning signal. The pain threshold is virtually out of control.

Social isolation of children with chronic pain
The animated film should help to understand these mechanisms and to create an awareness of the problem for those affected and their environment. „At first, friends often react very sympathetically and compassionately. And then they turn away at some point, "Zernikov told the magazine.Then the sufferers often isolated themselves and would have to deal with the physical as well as social problems.Many children and adolescents often have long absenteeism at school because of the complaints, what In addition, there are psychological problems due to the high physical and emotional stress.

Despite the urgency of the problem, the supply situation for children and adolescents with chronic pain in Germany is inadequate. Early intervention is particularly important in the treatment of recurrent pain. For this reason, Zernikow founded together with his team in 2002 the Vodafone Foundation Institute for Pediatric Pain Management and Pediatric Palliative Medicine (VIKP) at the Vestische Kinder- und Jugendklinik. In 2012, the German Pediatric Pain Center was founded and affiliated. (Ag)