Benedict Martin Wand

• BAppSc(physio), GradDip(ExSpSc), MAppSc(manip physio), PhD
• Professor at The University of Notre Dame Australia

potential treatment target. The Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire (FreBAQ) is designed to identify disrupted body image specific to the low back. This study aimed to develop and assess the measurement properties of a Polish language version of this questionnaire (FreBAQ-PL). Methods: Following the translation process, cognitive interviews were...

OBJECTIVES: To explore the extent of functional improvement following primary total knee arthroplasty for knee osteoarthritis and compare trajectories of self-reported and performance-based measures of physical function. METHODS: We searched three electronic databases from January 2005 to February 2023 for longitudinal cohort studies involving adul...

Introduction The effect of pain education (PE) on pain intensity and function diminishes after a few months in people with chronic low back pain (CLBP). One possible explanation is the return of underlying fears and worries related to the condition. Objective To explore topics related to participants' beliefs and feelings that might explain why fe...

Body image is a conscious representation of the body, encompassing how our body feels to us. Body image can be measured in a variety of ways, including metric and depictive measures. This study sought to assess body image at the trunk by investigating, and comparing, a metric and depictive measure. Sixty-nine healthy participants estimated their th...

Background Altered body awareness and perception comprise a common feature of persistent pain. The Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire (FreBAQ) was developed to assess body awareness and perception in people with back pain. There is no tool to measure these changes in people with persistent perineal pain. Objective To develop the Fremantle Peri...

Knowing where the body is in space requires reference to a stored model of the size and shape of body parts, termed the body model. This study sought to investigate the characteristics of the implicit body model of the trunk by assessing the position sense of midline and lateral body landmarks. Sixty-nine healthy participants localised midline and...

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the difference in confidence to become active despite low back pain in people who were exposed to one of 2 video interventions delivered on social media, compared to no intervention. DESIGN: A proof-of-concept, 3-group randomized controlled trial, in a 1:1:1 ratio. METHODS: Participants aged 18 years and over, with and withou...

Background and aim There is evidence to suggest that assessing back-specific altered self-perception may be useful when seeking to understand and manage low back pain (LBP). The Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire (FreBAQ) is a patient-reported measure of back-specific body perception that has never been adapted and psychometrically analysed in...

Localizing tactile stimulation is an important capability for everyday function and may be impaired in people with persistent pain. This study sought to provide a detailed description of lumbar spine tactile localization accuracy in healthy individuals. Sixty-nine healthy participants estimated where they were touched at nine different points, labe...

An improved understanding of the biopsychosocial influences that contribute to and maintain pain has promoted the development of new efficacious treatments for chronic low back pain (CLBP). This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms of a new treatment-education and graded sensorimotor retraining-on pain and disability. We conducted a preplanned...

Background: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic pain condition that usually occurs in a limb following trauma or surgery. It is characterised by persisting pain that is disproportionate in magnitude or duration to the typical course of pain after similar injury. There is currently no consensus regarding the optimal management of CRP...

Background: Pharmacological interventions are the most used treatment for low back pain (LBP). Use of evidence from systematic reviews of the effects of pharmacological interventions for LBP published in the Cochrane Library, is limited by lack of a comprehensive overview. Objectives: To summarise the evidence from Cochrane Reviews of the effica...

Objective To evaluate the comparative effectiveness and safety of analgesic medicines for acute non-specific low back pain. Design Systematic review and network meta-analysis. Data sources Medline, PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, CENTRAL, ClinicalTrials.gov, clinicialtrialsregister.eu, and World Health Organization’s International Clinical Trials Registr...

Introduction In chronic low back pain (CLBP), disturbed body image has been highlighted as a contributor to the condition and a potential target for treatment. The Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire (FreBAQ) allows its assessment. Following international guidelines for the cross-cultural translation of questionnaires, we aimed to translate the...

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate whether cognitive functional therapy (CFT) is an effective treatment for adults with chronic low back pain (LBP). DESIGN: Intervention systematic review with meta-analysis. LITERATURE SEARCH: We searched 4 electronic databases (CENTRAL, CINAHL, MEDLINE, and Embase) and 2 clinical trial registers (ClinicalTrials. gov...

A new wave of treatments has emerged to target the altered nervous system and maladaptive conceptualizations about pain for chronic low back pain. The acceptability of these treatments is still uncertain. We conducted a qualitative study alongside a randomized controlled trial to identify perceptions of facilitators/barriers to participation in a n...

Introduction: Low back pain contributes to an increasing global health burden exacerbated by unsustained improvements from current treatments. There is a need to develop, and test interventions to maintain initial improvements from low back pain treatments. One option is to implement a booster intervention. This study aimed to develop and test the...

Chronic nonspecific low back pain (CNSLBP) is a complex and multifaceted problem. The following Perspective Piece tries to help make sense of this complexity by describing a model for the development and maintenance of persistent low back pain that integrates modifiable factors across the biopsychosocial spectrum. The Fit-for-Purpose model (FFPM) p...

Body re-sizing illusions can profoundly alter perception of our own body. We investigated whether creating the illusion of a muscled and fit-looking back (Strong) influenced perceived back size, body ownership, and attitudes towards self-capacity during a lifting task. Twenty-four healthy male volunteers performed a standardised lifting task while...

Importance: The effects of altered neural processing, defined as altering neural networks responsible for perceptions of pain and function, on chronic pain remains unclear. Objective: To estimate the effect of a graded sensorimotor retraining intervention (RESOLVE) on pain intensity in people with chronic low back pain. Design, setting, and par...

Introduction Social media provide promising contemporary platforms for sharing public health information with a broad audience. Before implementation, testing social media campaigns that are intended to engage audiences and initiate behaviour change is necessary. This trial aims to investigate the effectiveness of a public health campaign to increa...

Background: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a painful and disabling condition that usually manifests in response to trauma or surgery and is associated with significant pain and disability. CRPS can be classified into two types: type I (CRPS I) in which a specific nerve lesion has not been identified and type II (CRPS II) where there is a...

Introduction Clinician time and resources may be underutilised if the treatment they offer does not match patient expectations and attitudes. We developed a questionnaire (AxEL-Q) to guide clinicians toward elements of first-line care that are pertinent to their patients with low back pain. Methods We used guidance from the COSMIN consortium to de...

This observational study evaluated people's attitudes towards educational statements and tested whether this predicted intention to self-manage low back pain (LBP).People with or without LBP who were over 18-years of age and fluent in written English were recruited. Participants completed an online survey asking demographic questions and questions...

Introduction:. There are complex interactions between pain and perceptions of the painful body part in musculoskeletal disorders, and disruption of various body representations in people with chronic pain. Objectives:. The purpose of this study was to investigate how frequently people with knee osteoarthritis (OA) complain of swelling without objec...

Objective: To determine if impairment in motor imagery processes is present in Achilles tendinopathy (AT), as demonstrated by a reduced ability to quickly and accurately identify the laterality (left-right judgement) of a pictured limb. Additionally, this study aimed to use a novel data pooling approach to combine data collected at 3 different sit...

Background Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a global health problem associated with an increasing burden on individuals, health care systems, and society. Common treatments for people with CLBP produce, on average, small short-term improvements in pain and function compared with minimal care. The RESOLVE trial randomly allocated 276 people with CLBP...

Objectives: It has been hypothesised that attentional bias to environmental threats can contribute to persistent pain. It is unclear whether people with acute low back pain (LBP) have an attentional bias to environmental threats. We investigated if attentional bias of threat related words is different in people with acute LBP and pain-free control...

Objective: To investigate factors contributing to the decision for a working age adult experiencing non-specific low back pain (NSLBP) to seek care at an Australian metropolitan tertiary ED. Methods: Participants triaged with NSLBP were recruited from one metropolitan tertiary Australian ED. We employed a qualitative descriptive methodology usin...

OBJECTIVE Low back pain is the leading contributor to the global disability burden. The Global Spine Care Initiative(GSCI) recommend patient-centred care to stem the cost of low back pain. One way to enhance patient-centred care is by better understanding what is relevant for people with low back pain. Exploring social media posts about low back pa...

Background and aim Growing attention is being given to utilising physical function measures to better understand and manage knee osteoarthritis (OA). The Fremantle Knee Awareness Questionnaire (FreKAQ), a self-reported measure of body-perception specific to the knee, has never been validated in Italian patients. The aims of this study were to cultu...

Background Disrupted self-perception of the low back might contribute to chronic non-specific low back pain. The Fremantle back awareness questionnaire is a simple questionnaire to assess back specific self-perception. The questionnaire has recently been translated to German (FreBAQ-G). The aim was to further investigate the psychometric properties...

The aim of this study was to explore the existence of subgroups in a cohort of people with knee osteoarthritis (OA) based upon data from multiple pain-related variables and to profile identified clusters according to levels of pain intensity and knee-related disability. Three hundred and three people with knee OA were recruited. Latent profile anal...

Purpose Contemporary theories of pain suggest that how the body is perceived is central to the emergence of pain. The Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire (FreBAQ) was developed to assess body-perception specific to the back in people with chronic low back pain. However, there is no comprehensive measure to quantify self-perception of the painful...

Background There is evidence that people with persistent shoulder pain exhibit findings consistent with the presence of sensorimotor dysfunction. Sensorimotor impairments can manifest in a variety of ways, and further developing our understanding of sensorimotor dysfunction in shoulder pain may improve current models of care. The Fremantle Back Awa...

Resistance training immediately after a burn injury has not been investigated previously. This randomised, controlled trial assessed the impact of resistance training on quality of life plus a number of physical, functional and safety outcomes in adults with a burn injury. Patients were randomly assigned to receive, in addition to standard physioth...

BACKGROUND Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a global health problem associated with an increasing burden on individuals, health care systems, and society. Common treatments for people with CLBP produce, on average, small short-term improvements in pain and function compared with minimal care. The RESOLVE trial randomly allocated 276 people with CLBP...

Background The purpose of this investigation was to undertake a hypothesis‐generating study to identify candidate variables that characterize people with knee osteoarthritis who are most likely to experience a positive response to exercise. Methods One hundred and fifty participants with knee osteoarthritis participated in this observational, long...

Background Statistical analysis plans describe the planned data management and analysis for clinical trials. This supports transparent reporting and interpretation of clinical trial results. This paper reports the statistical analysis plan for the RESOLVE clinical trial. The RESOLVE trial assigned participants with chronic low back pain to graded s...

Objective: Systematic-reviews of analgesics for low back pain generally include published data only. Obtaining data from unpublished trials is potentially important because they may impact effect sizes in meta-analyses. We determined whether including unpublished data from trial registries changes the effect sizes in meta-analyses of analgesics fo...

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether distorted body perception is a feature of the low back pain experience in people with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and whether any distortions noted are confounded by the presence of motor and postural impairments commonly seen in CP. Methods: Forty-five individuals participated in this...

Background: Chronic pain, considered to be pain lasting more than three months, is a common and often difficult to treat condition that can significantly impact upon function and quality of life. Treatment typically includes pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is an adjunct non-pha...

Background: Chronic pain, considered to be pain lasting more than three months, is a common and often difficult to treat condition that can significantly impact upon function and quality of life. Treatment typically includes pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is an adjunct non-pha...

Background The Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire (FreBAQ) claims to assess disrupted self-perception of the back. The aim of this study was to develop a German version of the FreBAQ (FreBAQ-G) and assess its test-retest reliability, its known-groups validity and its convergent validity with another purported measure of back perception. Method...

The Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire-German (FreBAQ-G). (PDF)

Supporting Information–Raw Data set. FreBAQ = Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire; TPD = Two-Point Discrimination; HC = Healthy controls. (DOCX)

Objective: This proof-of-concept pilot study aimed to investigate if a visual illusion that altered the size and muscularity of the back could be embodied and alter perception of the back. Methods: The back visual illusions were created using the MIRAGE multisensory illusion system. Participants watched real-time footage of a modified version of...

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To answer the clinical question: 'what analgesic medicine shall I prescribe this patient with chronic low back pain to reduce their pain?'. The objectives are to determine the analgesic effects, safety, effect on function, and relative rank according to analgesi...

Background: This is an updated version of the original Cochrane Review published in 2010, Issue 9, and last updated in 2014, Issue 4. Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques aim to induce an electrical stimulation of the brain in an attempt to reduce chronic pain by directly altering brain activity. They include repetitive transcranial magnetic...

Background Visualizing one's own painful body part appears to have an effect on reported pain intensity. Furthermore, it seems that manipulating the size of the viewed image can determine the direction and extent of this phenomenon. When visual distortion has been applied to clinical populations the analgesic effects have been in opposition to thos...

Background: This is an updated version of the original Cochrane Review published in 2010, Issue 9, and last updated in 2014, Issue 4. Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques aim to induce an electrical stimulation of the brain in an attempt to reduce chronic pain by directly altering brain activity. They include repetitive transcranial magnetic...

External stabilization is reported to improve reliability of hand held dynamometry, yet this has not been tested in burns. We aimed to assess the reliability of dynamometry using an external system of stabilization in people with moderate burn injury and explore construct validity of strength assessment using dynamometry. Participants were assessed...

Perspectives: The effect on endogenous analgesia of observing another's pain and of threat of pain to oneself was investigated. Extrinsic as well as intrinsic threat cues, in the absence of any afferent input, increased pain thresholds, suggesting that mere threat of pain may initiate analgesic effects in traditional noxious experimental paradigms...

Background/aim Resistance training is beneficial for rehabilitation in many clinical conditions, though this has not been systematically reviewed in burns. The objective was to determine the effectiveness of resistance training on muscle strength, lean mass, function, quality of life and pain, in children and adults after burn injury. Methods Me...

Background: Neuropathic pain, which is due to nerve disease or damage, represents a significant burden on people and society. It can be particularly unpleasant and achieving adequate symptom control can be difficult. Non-pharmacological methods of treatment are often employed by people with neuropathic pain and may include transcutaneous electrica...

Background: Disturbed body perception may play a role in the aetiology of chronic low back pain (LBP). The Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire (FreBAQ) is currently the only self-report questionnaire to assess back-specific body perception in individuals with LBP. Objectives: To perform a cross-cultural adaptation of the FreBAQ into Dutch. D...

Eyetracking is commonly used to investigate attentional bias. Although some studies have investigated the internal consistency of eyetracking, data are scarce on the test–retest reliability and agreement of eyetracking to investigate attentional bias. This study reports the test–retest reliability, measurement error, and internal consistency of 12...

Introduction Chronic low back pain (LBP) is a common and costly health problem yet current treatments demonstrate at best, small effects. The concurrent application of treatments with synergistic clinical and mechanistic effects may improve outcomes in chronic LBP. This pilot trial aims to (1) determine the feasibility, safety and perceived patient...

Background Recent systematic reviews have demonstrated that pain associated with knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a complex phenomenon that involves various contributors. People with knee OA exhibit symptoms of impaired body-perception, including reduced tactile acuity, impairments in limb laterality recognition, and degraded proprioceptive acuity. The...

Given the scale and cost of the low back pain problem, it is imperative that healthcare professionals involved in the care of people with low back pain have access to up-to-date, evidence-based information to assist them in treatment decision-making. Clinical guidelines exist to promote the consistent best practice, to reduce unwarranted variation...

Background: Recent investigations have suggested that disrupted body-image may contribute to the lumbopelvic pain experience. The changes in body shape and size associated with pregnancy suggest that pregnancy-related lumbopelvic pain might be a problem in which alterations in body-image are particularly relevant. Objectives: To investigate if s...

Background: There is a growing interest in the role of disturbed body perception in people with persistent pain problems such as chronic low back pain (CLBP). A questionnaire, the Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire (FreBAQ), was recently developed as a simple and quick way of assessing disturbed perceptual awareness of the back in people with...

Objectives Headache is the most common type of pain reported by people with schizophrenia. This study aimed to establish prevalence, characteristics and management of these headaches. Methods One hundred participants with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder completed a reliable and valid headache questionnaire. Two clinicians independently clas...

Introduction: Low back pain is the leading worldwide cause of disability, and results in significant personal hardship. Most available treatments, when tested in high-quality randomised, controlled trials, achieve only modest improvements in pain, at best. Recently, treatments that target central nervous system function have been developed and tes...

Study Design Controlled laboratory study, preliminary case-control design. Background The mechanisms that contribute to Achilles tendinopathy remain poorly understood. The disparity between pain experience and peripheral pathology demonstrated in patients with Achilles tendinopathy suggests that changes in central nervous system function may be in...

-

-

Background: This review is an update of a previously published review in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2005, Issue 4 (and last updated in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2013 issue 8), on local anaesthetic blockade (LASB) of the sympathetic chain to treat people with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Objectives:...

Perspective: Several lines of evidence suggest that body perception might be disturbed in people with chronic low back pain, possibly contributing to the condition and offering a potential target for treatment. The Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire was developed as a quick and simple way of measuring back specific body-perception in people wi...

Objectives: Clinical reasoning can be difficult to teach to pre-professional physiotherapy students due to their lack of clinical experience. It may be that tools such as clinical prediction rules (CPRs) could aid the process, but there has been little investigation into their use in physiotherapy clinical education. This study aimed to determine...

Introduction Headache is the most common pain reported by people with schizophrenia. Little research has been conducted into the characteristics and management of headaches in this population. Objectives Determine the prevalence, type and management of headache in people with schizophrenia. Aims Identify if best practice treatment of headache occur...

Background: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a painful and disabling condition that usually manifests in response to trauma or surgery. When it occurs, it is associated with significant pain and disability. It is thought to arise and persist as a consequence of a maladaptive pro-inflammatory response and disturbances in sympathetically-med...

Background and purpose: Orofacial pain disorders are relatively uncommon and present a substantial diagnostic challenge. In this case report we document the diagnosis and management of a patient with hemifacial pain who was referred to an interdisciplinary pain medicine unit. The purpose of this case report is twofold. First, we present complex re...

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To determine the analgesic effectiveness of TENS versus placebo (sham) TENS, TENS versus usual care, TENS versus no treatment and TENS in addition to usual care versus usual care alone in the management of neuropathic pain in adults.

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: • To provide an overview of evidence from Cochrane systematic reviews of the effectiveness of TENS to reduce pain in adults with chronic pain (excluding headache or migraine). • To provide an overview of evidence from Cochrane systematic reviews of the safet...

For a small but significant group, pregnancy-related lumbopelvic pain may become persistent. While multiple factors may contribute to disability in this group, previous studies have not investigated sleep impairments, body perception or mindfulness as potential factors associated with disability post-partum. To compare women experiencing no pain po...

Clinical reasoning can be difficult to teach to pre-professional physiotherapy students due to their lack of clinical experience. It may be that tools such as clinical prediction rules (CPRs) could aid the process, but there has been little investigation into their use in physiotherapy clinical education. This study aimed to determine the perceptio...

There is no shortage of treatment approaches offered to sufferers of pain. The maze of options presents patients and clinicians with difficult choices. Key to making those choices is evidence of treatment effectiveness provided by clinical trials and systematic reviews. Recent growth in the number of clinical trials and systematic reviews, of both...

Not recommended; early promise is fading fast as trial methods improve Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a form of non-invasive brain stimulation that delivers low intensity direct current stimulation to the brain through electrodes applied to the skin over the target area. It has been found to modulate cortical excitability at the...

Purpose To provide insight into the prevalence, characteristics, classifications, impacts and current management of headaches within the schizophrenic population Relevance Headache is the most common pain reported by people with schizophrenia. Despite this there is very little research around the issues. People experiencing chronic headache have...

Movement restriction has been proposed as an important modulator of changes in sensory and perceptual function and motor imagery performance that are observed in musculoskeletal pain syndromes. There are no empirical data to support this view. The primary objective of this experiment was to determine the effects of movement restriction on local and...