Dr Panos Barlas
Dr Panos Barlas
Presentation
Sensory stimulation is a term to describe a range of techniques typically used by health professionals aiming to achieve either analgesia or mood-enhancing effects. It includes acupuncture, electroacupuncture, TENS and soft tissue mobilisation amongs others.Such techniques have been used with some success for the alleviation of the symptoms associated with myofascial pain and dysfunction.This presentation will focus on the physiological effects of sensory stimulation and review its clinical efficacy on myofascial pain and associated effects.
Biography
Panos qualified as a physiotherapist from the School of Physiotherapy in the Technical Educational Institute of Athens in 1991 and the Department of Physiotherapy in the University of Ulster at Jordanstown. After gaining a BSc(Hons) in 1993 he embarked on postgraduate research studies in the Faculty of Science of the University of Ulster at Jordanstown, researching the analgesic effects of acupuncture upon experimentally induced muscle pain and muscle damage. In parallel to the research studies he also attended the National Institute of Acupuncture (Dublin), which lead to a licentiate in acupuncture from the British College of Acupuncture in 1996. Panos gained his DPhil in the summer of 1997. Panos' involvement with acupuncture dates back to 1994 when he was elected Membership secretary of the Acupuncture Association of Chartered Physiotherapists (AACP). Whilst working in Coventry University he was responsible for the development of the MSc in Acupuncture, the first such degree in UK and Europe. Currently he is a Research Fellow, in the School of Health and Rehabilitation in Keele University, where he is responsible for developing clinical research in acupuncture and its effects on musculoskeletal pain and experimental research on the physiology of sensory stimulation induced analgesia, a field where he collaborates with a number of laboratories both in the UK and abroad. He holds a number of grants all related to the analgesic effects of acupuncture and electrostimulation upon experimental and clinical models of pain. He lectures extensively in a number of Masters, graduate courses and conferences on acupuncture, physiology of pain and sensory stimulation-induced analgesia and acupuncture practice. At present he is responsible for Masters modules in acupuncture as well as the physiology and pharmacology of pain and analgesia within the MSc framework of the School of Health and Rehabilitation in Keele University. Additionally, Panos publishes regularly the findings of research in the centers he is involved with and, along with Prof Thomas Lundeberg, he is the co-author of the chapter on Acupuncture, TENS and related techniques in the current edition of ‘Melzack and Wall’s Textbook of Pain’. Panos is an AACP approved tutor and has delivered over 250 courses on ‘Foundation in Acupuncture’ training, as well as a wide range of post-basic courses both in the UK and abroad.