With the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games just around the corner, the extensive training and the sacrifices athletes make to compete at the games take centre stage. For Paralympians and high-performance athletes with spinal cord injuries (SCI), assessing chronic pain plays a key role in their training and readiness to compete. However, the source of chronic pain is often misattributed to acute trauma or overuse injuries.
While the International Olympic Committee acknowledges pain management data among Paralympians and athletes with disabilities is limited, few studies have been launched investigating this dilemma. Now, new research from UBC Okanagan highlights the need for more comprehensive assessment tools that can help SCI athletes recognize and communicate neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain, where a person might feel pain from any part of their body, is nerve pain that occurs after a breakdown, or severe damage to the nervous system.
It is often characterized as a burning, tingling and shooting pain. However, it is hard to diagnose for those living with an SCI. School of Health and Exercise Sciences alumna Dr.
Kendra Todd is a Senior Policy Analyst for the Government of Canada's Office of Public Service Accessibility and coach of British Columbia's Wheelchair Rugby team. Dr. Todd says results from her latest study provide the first comprehensive description of neuropathic pain experiences among SCI athletes while also highlighting their challenges in recognizing and communicat.