Neil O'Connell

Academic qualifications

Profile

Neil lectures on undergraduate and post graduate courses within the Physiotherapy division. He is an experienced musculoskeletal physiotherapist, with a special interest in pain generally and chronic back pain specifically. He is an active researcher in the field of back pain and chronic pain and his research activities include conducting systematic reviews with the Cochrane Collaboration.

Committee responsibilities

Brunel e-learning steering group

• Physiotherapy Division lead for the Research Excellence Framework exercise

Admin responsibilities

• Year 1 co-ordinator for the BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy programme.
• Module Leader
  - HH1105 Musculoskeletal I: The Lower Limb (BSc(Hons)Physiotherapy)
  - HH2101 Musculoskeletal II: The upper limb (BSc(Hons)Physiotherapy)
• -HH55019 Principles and practice of evidence based healthcare (MSc Neurorehabilitation)
  

Other responsibilities

• Clinical visiting
• Personal Tutoring

Teaching responsibilities

BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy modules

• HH1605 Musculoskeletal I: the lower quadrant
• HH2600 Musculoskeletal II: the upper quadrant
• HH3126 Research Methods
• HH55019 Principles and practice of evidence based healthcare

MSc Neurorehabilitation lectures/ workshops on Pain, Systematic reviews & meta-analysis.

Teaching interest

Chronic pain, evidence based practice, musculoskeletal physiotherapy

Research interests

Chronic low back pain, chronic pain, evidence based practice, systematic reviews.

Research centres

• CCentre for Research in Rehabilitation (CRR)

Research projects and grants

O’Connell NE, Cossar J, Wand BM, Moseley GL, Bunce D, DeSouza LH, Marston L, Maskill D. £10,000 award from BackCare. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in the Treatment of Chronic Non Specific Low Back Pain – A randomised, double-blinded interrupted time-series investigation. (PROJECT COMPLETE)

O’Connell NE, Cossar J, Wand BM, Moseley GL, Bunce D, DeSouza LH, Marston L, Maskill D. £9,000 award from the Rosetrees Trust. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in the Treatment of Chronic Non Specific Low Back Pain – A randomised, double-blinded interrupted time-series investigation. (PROJECT COMPLETE)

Wand BM, O’Connell NE, Moseley GL Graded cortical retraining in chronic low back pain. 11,300 Aus dollars (£5,453 at exchange rate June 2008) awarded by The University of Notre Dame Institute for Health and Rehabilitation Research Fogarty/ Prendiville Bequest (PROJECT COMPLETE)

Membership and affiliation

• International Association for the Study of Pain
• Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
• Health Professions Council

Other external activities

Neil is a regular contributer to the science blog “Body in Mind”. This blog represents an international collaboration of researchers with an interest in chronic pain, perception and the brain and aims to present current research in a format that is accessible and fun for the lay-reader.

The blog can be found here: www.bodyinmind.org

Neil's blogposts can be found here: http://bodyinmind.org/author/neil/

If you're interested in pain research then you really ought to check it out....

Publications

Journal Papers

(2011) O'Connell, NE. and Wand, BM., Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for chronic pain: time to evolve from exploration to confirmation?, Pain 152 (11) : 2451- 2452

(2011) O'Connell, NE., Wand, BM., Marston, L., Spencer, S. and Desouza, LH., Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques for chronic pain. A report of a Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis., Eur J Phys Rehabil Med 47 (2) : 309- 326

(2011) Wand, BM., O'Connell, NE., Di Pietro, F. and Bulsara, M., Managing chronic nonspecific low back pain with a sensorimotor retraining approach: Exploratory multiple-baseline study of 3 participants, Physical Therapy 91 (4) : 535- 546

(2011) Wand, BM., Parkitny, L., O'Connell, NE., Luomajoki, H., Thacker, M. and Moseley, GL., Cortical changes in chronic low back pain: Current state of the art and implications for clinical practice, Manual Therapy 16 (1) : 15- 20

(2010) O'Connell, NE., Wand, BM., Marston, L., Spencer, S. and De Souza, LH., Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques for chronic pain, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 9CD008208

(2010) Wand, BM., Chiffelle, LA., O'Connell, NE., McAuley, JH. and De Souza, LH., Self-reported assessment of disability and performance-based assessment of disability are influenced by different patient characteristics in acute low back pain, European Spine Journal 19 (4) : 633- 640

(2010) Wand, BM., Di Pietro, F., George, P. and O'Connell, NE., Tactile thresholds are preserved yet complex sensory function is impaired over the lumbar spine of chronic non-specific low back pain patients: a preliminary investigation, Physiotherapy Forthcoming Download publication

(2009) O'Connell, NE., Wand, BM. and Goldacre, B., Interpretive Bias in Acupuncture Research? A Case Study, Evaluation and the Health Professions 32 (4) : 393- 409 Download publication

(2009) O'Connell, NE., “Trick or treatment?” The evidence based challenge, Journal of the Acupuncture Association of Chartered Physiotherapists Spring 2009 59- 63

(2009) Wand, BM., Hunter, R., O'Connell, NE., Marston, L. and McAuley, J., Self reported aggravating activities do not demonstrate a consistent directional pattern in chronic non specific low back pain patients: An observational study, Australian Journal of Physiotherapy 55 (1) : 47- 51 Download publication

(2009) Wand, BM., Hunter, R., O'Connell, NE., Marston, L. and McAuley, J., The self-reported aggravating activities of chronic non-specific low back pain patients do not appear to demonstrate a directional preference: an exploratory study, Australian Journal of Physiotherapy 55 47- 51

(2008) Wand, BM. and O'Connell, NE., Chronic non-specific low back pain - sub-groups or a single mechanism?, BMC MUSCULOSKEL DIS 9 (11) : 11 Download publication

(2008) Smart, K., O'Connell, NE. and Doody, C., Towards a mechanisms-based classification of pain in musculoskeletal physiotherapy?, Physical Therapy Reviews 13 (1) : 1- 10

(2007) O'Connell, NE., Maskill, DW., Cossar, J. and Nowicky, AV., Mapping the cortical representation of the lumbar paravertebral muscles, Clinical Neurophysiology 118 (11) : 2451- 2455 Download publication

(2006) O'Connell, NE., Cowan, J. and Christopher, T., An investigation into EMG activity in the upper and lower portions of the subscapularis muscle during normal shoulder motion, Physiotherapy Research International 11 (3) : 148- 151

Conference Papers

(2009) Wand, BM., Di Pietro, F., George, P. and O'Connell, N., Tactile thresholds are preserved yet cortical sensory function is impaired in chronic non-specific low back pain patients, 3rd International Conference on Movement Dysfunction, Manual Therapy S14- S15

(2009) Wand, BM., Formby, P., O'Connell, NE., McAuley, JH. and DeSouza, LH., Self-reported assessment of disability and performance-based assessment of disability are influenced by different patient characteristics in acute low back pain., 3rd International Conference in Movement Dysfunction, Manual Therapy S33- S33

(2009) Wand, BM., Hunter, R., O'Connell, NE., Marston, L. and McAuley, J., The self-reported aggravating activities of chronic non-specific low back pain patients do not appear to demonstrate a directional preference: an exploratory study., 3rd International Conference in Movement Dysfunction, Manual Therapy S46- S46

(2008) Breen, EJ., O'Connell, NE. and Stapleton, T., An investigation into the experience of pain among a population of spinal cord injured individuals living in the Republic of Ireland: the impact on functional independence, life satisfaction and mood ., Rehabilitation and Therapy Research Society, 3rd Annual Conference, Physical Therapy Reviews (2) : 136- 136

(2006) Cossar, J., Austin, A., Bond, E., Maskill, DW., Nowicky, AV. and O'Connell, NE., The effect of chronic electrical stimulation to forearm extensor muscles on cortical plasticity., Physiological Society Meeting, Proc Physiol Soc 3 PC51-