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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD

@rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social
26 followers 30 following 31 posts

Pain Science | Digital Health | Evidence-based Healthcare | AI | Translating Pain Science into Clinical Care | Clinical Hypnosis in Pain | NeuRA | @UNSW #Pain #EvidenceBasedPractice #Brain #Movement #Hypnosis

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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
🧠 When “hope” and “advice” can get in the way of recovery Many people with chronic pain have been trying to get rid of their pain for a very long time. They’re often tired. So instead of asking for effort, belief, or optimism, how about: Close your eyes and take a rest while your hear my voice
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Happy to be nominated for the UNSW 2025 Research High Impact Partnership Award by the Faculty of Medicine. Big thank you to the Centre for Pain IMPACT , UNSW Medicine & Health and all collaborators. #unsw #pain #evidencebasedhealthcare
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
🔥We scanned the lower leg muscles of 192 healthy children aged 5 to 15 years old using MRI. We wanted to understand how the muscles in the lower leg grow as children get older. 🎯Now we can identify when a child’s muscles are not growing as expected. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Architecture of lower leg muscles in children: Reference curves and potential mechanisms of growth
Muscle architecture (physiological cross-sectional area, fascicle lengths and pennation angle) was measured from multimodal MRI scans of the lower legs of 197 children aged ≤15 years. We showed that ...
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
🎯Great to see how physiotherapy students responded to the Knowledge of Pain Board Game. Game-based learning continues to show its value in helping future clinicians grasp complex biopsychosocial pain concepts in low- and middle-income countries. #painscience #physiotherapy #university #education
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
It is possible to facilitate a person’s ability to imagine, and it is also possible to guide someone toward experiencing a positive hallucination. Hallucinations differ from ordinary imagination. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Beyond imagination: Hypnotic visual hallucination induces greater lateralised brain activity than visual mental imagery
Hypnotic suggestions can produce a broad range of perceptual experiences, including hallucinations. Visual hypnotic hallucinations differ in many ways…
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
🎉Seven years since I sold the Institute of #Movement and #PainManagement. Assessment, screening for the right care pathway, pain management programs, and physical-activity plans tailored to each person’s needs and preferences. Chapter closed… to open a new one in Australia. ✨ #Anniversary
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Research Data infrastructure in the digital era with Jodie Austin at the ACTA 2025 Clinical Trials and Registries Symposium. It was great to see how the SMART hub is collecting reliable health data in Queensland. #clinicaltrials #digitalhealth #AI
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
✈️Heading to the ACTA 2025 Clinical Trials in Melbourne this week. We will discuss efficient ways of conducting clinical trials, particularly in the era of #digitalhealth and #AI. 🎯See the first three presentations of the program!
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
This trial, published at @thelancet.com, showed that a fully self-guided digital behavioural program improved pain and function in people with fibromyalgia versus an active control A significant step toward accessible, scalable care 🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38991582/ #ChronicPain #DigitalHealth
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Self-guided digital behavioural therapy versus active control for fibromyalgia (PROSPER-FM): a phase 3, multicentre, randomised controlled trial - PubMed
Swing Therapeutics.
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
➡️ More alternatives (suggestions) = higher likelihood of choosing an NSAID over the opioid in a situation of chronic low back pain flare-up. 🔗 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Multiple Suggested Care Alternatives and Decision-Making of PCPs
This randomized clinical trial investigates whether providing primary care physicians (PCPs) with 1 vs 2 or more appropriate treatment alternatives in a choice set has an effect on the odds that they ...
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Strong evidence for scalable care #hypnosis #digitalhealth A new participant’s-blinded randomised controlled trial in JAMA Network Open found that self-administered audio clinical hypnosis led to a meaningful reduction in hot flashes (53% vs 41% with sham). 🔗 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Self-Administered Hypnosis vs Sham Hypnosis for Hot Flashes
This randomized clinical trial evaluates the efficacy of a self-administered hypnosis intervention for hot flashes compared with a self-administered sham hypnosis control and evaluates the efficacy of...
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
A meta-analysis (137 studies, n = 12,966) found that touch improves pain, mood, anxiety, and cortisol regulation. Although human touch might be more beneficial, even robot-delivered touch showed physical benefits. #PainResearch #MentalHealth #Neuroscience www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
🚨We showed that hypnosis can ease pain fast—and lasting relief might need a change in how we think about pain. 🧠 Understanding what drives short- vs long-term effects helps refine hypnotic suggestions. #ChronicPain #Research #hypnosis 🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34048108/
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
“The digital intervention was associated with annual per-person savings of $2025.7 in MSK care (95% CI, 1362.0-2689.4; P<.001) and $2369.5 in total health care (95% CI, 1305.4-3433.7) versus comparator group.” www.archives-pmr.org/article/S000...
archives-pmr.org
Economic Impact of Digital Musculoskeletal Care Versus In-person Physical Therapy: A US Claims Analysis of Health Care Utilization and Outcomes
Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions are the leading cause of years lived with disability worldwide1-4 and affect over half of the US population, resulting in chronic pain, poor mental health, and work ab...
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
A few years ago, I reviewed the science behind biopsychosocial models and pain neurophysiology. With experts in game design and lived experience, we turned that knowledge into the world’s first pain education board game. 🎲✨ Now, it will be available in English! #PainEducation #Innovation
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
A few years ago, I reviewed the science behind biopsychosocial models and pain neurophysiology. With experts in game design and lived experience, we turned that knowledge into the world’s first pain education board game. 🎲✨ Now, it will be available in English! #PainEducation #Innovation
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
🎵 Can music improve sleep quality? A Cochrane review found: listening to prerecorded #music daily for 25–60 minutes over periods of three days-three months led to moderate-certainty evidence of better #sleepquality. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36000763/ #EvidenceBasedPractice #CochraneReview
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Reposted by Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD
Anil Seth @anilseth.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
1/🧵 Out today in @frontiersin.bsky.social : “Consciousness science: where are we, where are we going, and what if we get there?” By @axc.bsky.social @liadmudrik.bsky.social, & me (a CIFAR & @erc.europa.eu production 🧠). www.frontiersin.org/journals/sci...
frontiersin.org
Advancing consciousness science
Defining new directions in consciousness research and exploring implications for medicine, technology, and ethics
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Imagine leaving your GP appointment with immediate access to a non-pharmacological intervention that fits in your pocket. UNSW #SDGShowcase: we shared how we combine education and clinical #hypnosis to retrain the #pain system for lasting change. #ChronicPain #Innovation #digitalhealth
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Are clinicians reassuring their patients — or only themselves? 🧠 There are better ways to say “Your MRI is completely normal.” 👉 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39428652/%EF... #PainCommunication #ClinicianPatientRelationship
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
'The MRI-scan says it is completely normal': Reassurance attempts in clinical encounters among patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain - PubMed
In clinical guidelines for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain, reassurance is a key element. The purpose of reassuring patients is to change their views on their illness and, thereby, their actions. However, when symptoms persist without pathological findings, reassurance can be difficult to …
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
What immediate skin-to-skin contact between newborns and their mothers SUGGESTS to newborns? It suggests safety, and the system responds accordingly. #cochrane #love www.cochrane.org/about-us/new...
cochrane.org
Strong evidence supports skin-to-skin contact after birth as standard care | Cochrane
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Our research team will present the NOTUS project on the Sustainable Development Goals Showcase at UNSW next week. Everyone is welcome. Get tickets: www.unsw.edu.au/edi/sustaina...
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
🧠Pioneered study: Hypnosis Enhances the Effects of Pain Education in Patients With Chronic Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Open access paper: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29654980/ #mind-body #pain #chronicpain #hypnosis #PainResearch
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
The total treatment effect is preventive for prostate cancer but harmful for other causes of death. Can the benefit in prevention be explained by the missing data from people who died from other causes? Causal Mediation in Time-to-event Analysis at @causalab.bsky.social
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Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD @rodrizzo-pain.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Which non-drug 💊 & non-surgical 🛑 treatments help with #BackPain? Our new Cochrane Review breaks down what works and what doesn’t. For clinicians, researchers, & anyone affected by pain! 🔗: cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.... #LowBackPain #pain #cochrane #exercise #acupuncture #yoga #pilates
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