Karuna Labs

10/27/2025

November is CRPS awareness month!

08/26/2024

What is a psychophysiologic disorder?

Psychophysiologic disorders (PPD) can manifest themselves in many different ways, with different symptomatology. Chronic pain, migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue, and pelvic floor syndromes are a few of the chronic conditions that can be diagnosed as PPD. (https://ppdassociation.org/) In the treatment of chronic pain, certain clear pathological processes need to be ruled out. PPD are physical conditions and pain symptoms in that body that develop in response to stress, trauma, and other psychological factors.

One of the keys to treating PPD, is to decrease fear around movement, in order to dampen the threat response at the level of the brain. When we can decrease the activation of the alarm mechanism associated with a specific movement such as a hip-hinge, we can build new neural pathways.

In the pain coaching protocol we’ve built that is grounded in PPD principles, there are four main components:

Education of the nature of psychophysiologic disorders
Reducing the threat response at the level of the brain
Making changes to activities of daily living
Working with challenging emotions that are linked to the symptoms

At Karuna we specialize in addressing PPD. Please visit us at https://www.karunahrp.com for more info

We provide compassionate, evidence-based solutions to people suffering from chronic pain. Using state-of-the-art digital therapeutics technology and personalized coaching, we help patients suffering from chronic pain conditions retrain their brains and unlearn their pain.

08/26/2024

What is neuroplasticity? How does it apply to chronic pain?

Neuroplasticity is an often misunderstood topic in the world of pain medicine. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to reorganize to change it’s str...

08/11/2024

KarunaHOME.. a different way to manage pain

Karuna Labs provides compassionate, evidence-based solutions to people suffering from chronic pain. We use a revolutionary combination of proprietary virtual reality…

08/11/2024

Green Light To Move - by Charlie Merrill PT

https://www.karunalabs.com/blog/green-light-to-move

You are an athlete. Now I realize that for some this could be a jarring way to start an article about pain. I’m sensitive to the fact that calling one’s self an athlete can feel intimidating...

You are an athlete. Now I realize that for some this could be a jarring way to start an article about pain. I’m sensitive to the fact that calling one’s self an athlete can feel intimidating. Yet so many desperately want to believe in their body and even get emotional when I label them as an “...

10/21/2022

V.R. treatments may provide relief similar to intravenous opioids — a tantalizing prospect for the millions of Americans living with chronic pain.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/magazine/virtual-reality-chronic-pain.html?

V.R. treatments may provide relief similar to intravenous opioids — a tantalizing prospect for the millions of Americans living with chronic pain.

10/20/2022

On the Karuna Blog: Understanding the Terminology of Mind-Body Medicine and Chronic Pain

Learn how to sift through the hodgepodge of interrelated jargon. For patients, having a clear understanding of language and terminology can help identify the true source of their chronic pain and facilitate the healing process.

A scientific appreciation of the interplay between mind and body is relatively new to Western medicine, and as such various authors have used different verbiage over the years. Terminology is now becoming more consistent, but there is still a hodgepodge of interrelated jargon to sift through. For pa

10/19/2022

Curious how KarunaHOME works? Watch this video to learn about our 12 week chronic pain relief program:

09/10/2019

The technology aims to increase range of motion and lessen chronic pain.