Airing Pain

This edition of Airing Pain was recorded at the Living Well with Persistent Pain in Wales conference during Pain Awareness Month in September 2023. The topic of the conference was the launch of the revised Persistent Pain guidance first published in 2019.   The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we live and access services. How are healthcare professionals who treat patients with persistent pain ca...

Is self-compassion a trait or a state of being? This edition is inspired by findings that suggest stronger self-compassion is associated with reduced impact of chronic pain. Self-compassion, in this sense, is the ability to respond to pain and difficulties with kindness and openness rather than criticism. In this episode we ask our artistic contributors, and ourselves, how to step towards achievin...

This edition of Airing Pain was prompted by the 2022 NICE Guidelines which followed a Public Health England report (2019) looking at medicines associated with dependence and withdrawal. Read transcript This new legislation follows increased concerns in high levels of prescribing. This edition discusses the challenges and opportunities of de-prescribing; and poses a shift in focus towards supported...

What’s around the corner? This edition of Airing Pain platforms four internationally recognised clinicians from the British Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting     Recently healthcare technology and innovation has seen a rapid acceleration, particularly following disruption caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. In this edition we look around the corner and examine the most current technological adva...

This edition of Airing Pain examines how Covid-19 has impacted on the relationship between patient and healthcare professional. In the two or so years of living with Covid-19, the face-to-face relationship between doctors and patients was one of the first casualties. With restrictions relaxed, have we returned to the status quo, or has what was developed at breakneck speed led to new working pract...

What is mental defeat and does it have an impact on the experiences of those living with pain?     In this edition of Airing Pain , Paul Evans interviews the team at the Warwick Study of Mental Defeat in Chronic Pain (WITHIN Project) and research participants, as well as taking part in the study as a participant himself.  The study, which runs until May 2023, is investigating how mental defeat can...

How the symptoms of long COVID are being managed using group consultations and the many things long COVID has in common with other long-term conditions. Now that COVID has become a part of our day-to-day lives, so too has long COVID. So, with so much money now being directed towards researching treatments for long COVID, how might this impact the way we treat all manner of chronic conditions? In t...

How do you identify illness in young children and coping as a family. This Airing Pain was recorded at the Scottish Network for Arthritis in Children SNAC’s 2022 Family Weekend at Crieff Hydro , which brings together families recently affected by juvenile idiopathic arthritis and some of the country’s leading paediatric rheumatology experts.  Issues covered in this programme include: juvenile idio...

What causes different types of face pain and what treatment is available? In this episode of Airing Pain we cover facial pain in its many forms, what treatments are available and how to cope better with your pain. Funded by The Hospital Saturday Fund . In collaboration with UCLH Royal National ENT & Eastman Dental Hospitals . The way our face feels and how we move it is a massive part of our i...

Scotland’s Pain Management Programmes (PMPs) and what support is available after graduating. This edition of Airing Pain has been funded by a grant from the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland Self Management Fund   administered on behalf of the Scottish Government. What do you know about Pain Management Programmes (PMPs)? Do you know how they function? About the positive outcomes they have?...

Determining what Shingles really is and why vaccine uptake is so low? This edition of Airing Pain has been funded by a grant from The RS Macdonald Charitable Trust and The Stafford Trust What exactly is Shingles? We often hear it thrown into conversation alongside a virus many of us have already had: Chickenpox. So how are the two linked? Why is one more associated with young people and the other...

Looking into one of the most globally prevalent types of pain, back pain, and exploring different cultural attitudes towards pain. This edition of Airing Pain was created in association with the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and has been funded by the Plum Trust. Back pain is one of the most common types of pain that people report. It can arise due to any number of causati...

This edition of Airing Pain has been funded by educational grants from The R. S. Macdonald Charitable Trust and The Stafford Trust. Do you, someone you care for or perhaps your patients, suffer from persistent burning or gnawing pain? Many don’t know that often, neuropathic pain presents as a burning sensation. Persistent pain can impact all areas of our lives. It can stop us from sleeping, workin...

This edition has been funded by the Women’s Fund for Scotland. The Coronavirus pandemic has been long and isolating for everyone, but particularly for those who experience abuse. The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have seen an increase in the level and severity of domestic abuse.  In this episode of Airing Pain , our host Paul Evans discusses the isolating effects of Covid-19, trauma and how th...

This edition has been supported with a grant from Kyowa Kirin donated for this purpose. While opioids are seen as an effective treatment method for acute pain, there is an increasing debate on the efficacy of opioids when treating chronic pain conditions. One of the most common side effects of long-term opioid usage is constipation. Conditions like irritable bowel syndrome are more common in peopl...

This edition has been supported by a grant from The Champ Trust and Foundation Scotland. According to the most recent Scottish Diabetes Survey in 2018, there are an estimated 304,000 people living with a diagnosis of diabetes in Scotland, around 5% of the population. A long-term effect of diabetes can be the development of diabetic neuropathy. This edition of Airing Pain focuses on neuropathic pai...

This edition has been supported by a grant from Kyowa Kirin. The opioid crisis reached its peak in the United States in 2017, where addiction and overprescription have led to 218,000 deaths from prescription overdoses between the years of 1999 and 2017. The side effects of opioids can affect the day-to-day activities of people managing long-term or chronic pain, yet society as a whole has yet to f...

This editionhas been supported with a grant from The Mirianog Trust donated for this purpose. It was recorded at the end of April 2020, the second month of the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown. All interviews were recorded prior to the crisis. As research for a Covid-19 vaccine is a priority for the scientific community, this edition of Airing Pain focuses on the roles of researchers, and in particular the...

This edition has been partially funded by an educational grant from Grünenthal Limited, donated for this purpose. In April 2019, the Minister for Health and Social Services in Wales launched the guidance document Living with Persistent Pain in Wales . Later, in December, the Chronic Pain Policy Coalition brought together some of Wales’s leading pain experts at the home of the Welsh parliament (or...

This edition has been supported by a grant from The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust. Osteoporosis is a largely ignored condition that affects over 3 million people in the UK, with women being more at risk; a condition which, because the symptoms are difficult to notice by patients, is often referred to as the ‘silent disease’. In this edition of Airing Pain , we learn why prevention, assessment and...

This edition has been supported by a grant from the Plum Trust. In September, the British Pain Society’s special interest group on pain management programmes held their annual conference. A workshop entitled ‘Experts by Experience – working together in Pain Management Programmes’ was run in parallel to this. The symposium brought together patient-volunteers and healthcare professionals from four p...

In this edition of Airing Pain , Paul Evans looks at the issues concerning pain amongst adolescents, including the impact on parents. First-off, Paul speaks to Dr Jeremy Gauntlet-Gilbert, principal clinical psychologist at the Bath Centre for Pain Services, to talk about the 'end of the road' residential pain management programme the Centre has for young people from across the UK who have not had...

This edition was facilitated by the British Pain Society and recorded at their Annual Scientific Meeting 2019.  In this edition of Airing Pain , Paul Evans investigates the potential for patients to play an integral role in research, alongside the professionals. Through discussions with patients John and Mark both of whom are part of research groups, he sheds light on the importance of patients sh...

In this second instalment in a mini-series on neuropathic pain, Paul Evans delves into the latest scientific developments on the condition and the ways in which the gap between research and treatments could be bridged.  Following on from Airing Pain  115 , which concentrated on targeted Pain Management Programmes, this edition discusses the ‘bio’ element on dealing with neuropathic pain. Speaking...

In this edition of Airing Pain , Paul investigates the ideas behind Pain Management Programmes, and highlights the importance of the patient in shaping their own treatment. Internationally recognised Professor Srinivasa Raja speaks to Paul about the differences between nociceptive and neuropathic pain, as well as the complexities of chronic pain and its management. Consultant Clinical Psychologist...