Ep 207. Pain & Disability Drivers Management: A New Framework for Low Back Pain with Prof. Yannick Tousignant-Laflamme

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💡If you’ve ever felt stuck with a low back pain patient whose physical recovery has plateaued, this conversation is the roadmap you need.

Dr. Yannick breaks down the clinical reasoning behind the Pain and Disability Drivers Management (PDDM) framework, an innovative model designed to help clinicians stop guessing and start measuring the hidden factors driving pain and disability. Moving away from a narrow, outdated focus on isolated structural damage, Dr. Yannick shares how to operationalize the biopsychosocial model using practical, 15-minute digital screening tools.

💭 "Musculoskeletal pain is not only about nociception. It's about nociception, yes, but it's also about nervous system dysfunctions, comorbidities, cognitions, emotions, and contextual factors." - Yannick Tousignant-Laflamme

👉🏻 Prof. Yannick Tousignant-Laflamme is a physiotherapist and Full Professor at the Université de Sherbrooke, where he also earned his Master’s and Ph.D. in Clinical Sciences following a B.Sc. from the University of Ottawa and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Université de Montréal.

His research program focuses on improving the quality, value, and patient-centered outcomes of musculoskeletal rehabilitation through three core areas: optimizing low back pain management via his innovative Pain and Disability Drivers Management (PDDM) framework, enhancing chronic pain management through structured patient self-management programs, and personalizing care using prognosis and value-based principles. Additionally, he collaborates internationally to develop and validate clinical assessment tools that help therapists accurately measure pain and functional limitations.

📚In this episode, you'll learn:

Why standard biopsychosocial care isn't enough, and what the PDDM model does differently to identify the real drivers behind your patient's pain and disability
How to screen for the 5 PDDM domains (nociceptive, nervous system dysfunction, comorbidities, cognitive-emotional, and contextual) without adding significant time to your initial assessment
How to turn a patient's driver profile into an actual treatment plan, and why 91% of LBP patients have nervous system dysfunction elements you're likely missing
What the research shows about patient outcomes when care is matched to drivers, and how to set realistic expectations with your patients from day one

🔎Yannick's Resource of Information: