27 February 2026
Bilbao
More than 370,000 adults in the Basque Country live with chronic pain on a daily basis. Faced with this reality, the Official Association of Physiotherapists of the Basque Country and the University of Deusto held the 1st Transdisciplinary Conference on Pain and Neuroscience on 27 and 28 February on the Bilbao campus. The meeting brought together healthcare professionals to share knowledge and improve the way persistent pain is prevented, assessed and treated.
In the Basque Country, 25% of the adult population lives with this condition, considered by many experts to be a "silent epidemic." The average duration is more than eight years and particularly affects people between the ages of 35 and 54, in the midst of their working lives and family responsibilities. The impact goes beyond the clinical sphere: 38.2% of those affected have required sick leave in the past year—lasting on average nearly five months—and 61.4% experience sleep disturbances. This health and social burden poses a growing challenge for primary care, where pain is one of the most frequent reasons for consultation.
A meeting to promote a shift in the approach
The aim of the conference was to update the way chronic pain is approached from a more integrative perspective based on scientific evidence. Current research shows that it is not always the result of a structural lesion alone, but that biological, psychological and social factors are involved in its development, influencing the patient's experience and response to treatment.
In this context, the meeting aimed to strengthen coordination between disciplines, reduce care fragmentation, and translate advances in neuroscience into daily clinical practice, supporting more evidence-based and individualized therapeutic decisions.
Applied patient research
The speakers included Xabat Casado, physiotherapist, lecturer and researcher at the University of Deusto, member of the Deusto Physical TherapIlker research team and with more than two decades of clinical experience in musculoskeletal pain. His work focuses on identifying different pain profiles and analysing how they respond to treatments such as manual physiotherapy, with the aim of personalising interventions and optimising health outcomes.
"We know that not all patients with the same diagnosis evolve in the same way. A better understanding of the individual characteristics of pain allows us to make more precise decisions and offer more effective treatments," says Casado. Their participation reinforces the practical nature of the conference, which aims to connect research and healthcare practice.
Over two days, the programme combined lectures, panel discussions and practical workshops aimed at reinforcing clinical reasoning and updating the approach to persistent pain. The event brought together professionals from different health disciplines - medicine, physiotherapy, nursing, psychology and primary care - together with specialists in neuroscience, mental health and rehabilitation, with the aim of sharing tools, comparing experiences and moving towards more coordinated and effective care.
In a context in which one in four adults in the Basque Country lives with persistent pain, improving its management not only involves alleviating symptoms, but also preserving the quality of life, autonomy and social participation of thousands of citizens.
