Airing Pain

This edition of Airing Pain is funded by Foundation Scotland. On 1 April 2019 pregabalin and gabapentin, drugs recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for the management of neuropathic pain, were re-classified as class-C controlled substances. This change means it is illegal to possess pregabalin and gabapentin without a prescription, and illegal to supply or se...

This edition is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Chronic pain often exists ways that cannot be seen. Due to the intangible and ambiguous nature of many chronic pain conditions that lack clear-cut causes and treatment, patients feel frustrated when communicating with healthcare professionals, personal networks, and the public at large; they feel ‘invisible’. Lancaster University’...

This edition is funded by the Plum Foundation. In this edition of Airing Pain , returning contributor Mark Johnson, Director of the Centre for Pain Research at Leeds Beckett University, speaks to Paul about the experimental methods used in their lab to measure how pain is experienced. Professor Johnson emphasises the difficulty in communicating one’s pain, as it is entirely context driven and base...

This edition is supported by friends of Pain Concern. Director of CSPC Physiotherapy in Leeds, Alison Rose, specialises in working with high-level athletes, particularly those with complex injury histories. Rose speaks to Paul about her experience with chronic pain as being subjective for both athletes and non-athletes, explaining it as a unique “puzzle” that needs to be put together to find the c...

This edition is funded by the Agnes Hunter Trust.  According to Cancer Research UK, 50% of all people in England and Wales diagnosed with cancer survive their disease for ten years or more. This edition of Airing Pain looks at what pain management entails for the other 50%; those that live with terminal cancer. Kate Grafton, Lecturer and Professional Lead for Physiotherapy at Leeds Beckett Univers...

This edition has been supported by the Women’s Fund for Scotland. Fibromyalgia (FM) affects around 2% of the UK population, with 80-90% of those being women, and being a widely misunderstood condition its exact causes are unknown. Widespread pain is the major symptom; but people with FM may also experience fatigue, difficulty sleeping, memory problems ('fibro-fog'), muscle stiffness, and many othe...

This edition’s been part funded by the Women’s Fund of Scotland. Do women and men experience pain differently, or is it only our attitudes towards pain that differ? In this edition of Airing Pain , Paul speaks to healthcare professionals about their findings with the literature surrounding chronic pain and the changing outlooks when it comes to seeking help. Deputy Director of the Bath Centre for...

This edition has been funded by funded by the Health and Social Care Alliance and Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation. In 2015 Pain Concern released its report ‘Breaking barriers to self-management of chronic pain in primary care’, marking the end of the first part of its ‘Breaking Barriers’ project. Its aim was to highlight the commonly occurring barriers that patients faced during one-to-on...

This edition has been funded by Pain Concern supporter and cyclist Ade and The Sackler Trust. According to the British Pain Society, doctors and other healthcare professionals (HCPs) receive less training in pain management than veterinarians.* With pain being one of the major presenting factors for a large number of medical problems, this edition of Airing Pain looks into what programmes are bein...

This edition was funded by the Charles Wolfson Charitable Trust. The British Pain Society’s Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) allows the multidisciplinary nature of the society to be reflected through seminars, scientific programmes, lectures, and workshops. Participants can attend various exhibitions, social events, and seminars to have well-rounded experiences on the subject of pain. In 2017, the...

This edition is funded by the Constance Travis Charitable Trust and the Isabella Memorial Trust. Sleep can be a sanctuary from life; a way for the brain to decompress and begin restorative processes, but for those living with chronic pain, the pain/sleep cycle can become a vicious one. In this edition of Airing Pain , Paul speaks to clinical and health psychologist Dr Nicola Tang about how polysom...

This edition is funded by the JTH Charitable Trust and the Persula Foundation. With between one third and one half of people living with chronic pain in the UK alone, the number of people experiencing the effects of pain explodes when considering family and friendships.* For some of these people, life can become a cycle of hospital visits, blood tests, and scans. So, what can be done to ease these...

This edition is funded by a grant from the Stafford Trust. For top-level athletes, chronic pain can very quickly end careers. What preparations can be done to combat pain, and how important is patient engagement in rehabilitation? In this edition of Airing Pain , Paul speaks to chronic pain psychologist Dr Greg Clarke about how acute pain can turn chronic in the context of sport, and how the resil...

This edition is funded by The Agnes Hunter Trust. An ever-increasing cancer survivor rate means chronic pain associated with the condition and its treatment is growing. In the UK alone, cancer survivor rates have doubled in the last 40 years, from 24% to 50%.* In this edition of Airing Pain , Paul Evans speaks to Dr Paul Farquhar-Smith, consultant in anaesthesia and pain medicine at The Royal Mars...

In 2010, Airing Pain was conceived as a way for those with chronic pain, unable to leave their homes and attend support meetings, to easily access vital resources. Heather knew that this undertaking would require a skilled and experienced producer, so she reached out to Paul Evans. In this edition, Paul reminisces about the first phone call they had together, his eye-opening experience of realisin...

This edition was funded by a grant by the Agnes Hunter Trust With 8% of young people in the 13-18 age range affected by chronic pain (15,000 living with arthritis alone), the transition to adulthood, and the medical support that accompanies it, is an important process. Pain management consultant Dr Mary Rose and nurse Mandy Sim of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh speak to Paul Eva...

This edition is funded by Pain Concern’s donors and friends, assisted by an educational grant from Grünenthal. The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), formed in 1973, is the leading forum of scientists, clinicians, healthcare providers and policy makers supporting and promoting the study of pain and using that knowledge to improve pain relief worldwide. Each year IASP focuses o...

This programme is supported by an educational grant from the Tillyloss Trust. Along with food, shelter and clothing, sexual expression is one of the basic human needs. It allows us to express love and fulfils our need for human connection, but for the 14.3% of people in the UK living with moderately or severely disabling chronic pain, sex can be met with trepidation and anxiety.[1] This is underst...

This programme was funded by an educational grant from Napp Pharmaceuticals Ltd.  In 2017, the British Pain Society celebrated its fiftieth year as one of the foremost organisations for furthering the understanding of pain, and is now the oldest and largest multidisciplinary pain-focused organisation in the UK.  Founded as The Pain Group in 1967, its membership was limited purely to anaesthetists...

This programme was funded by grants from RS Macdonald Charitable Trust and the Hospital Saturday Fund. Complex regional pain syndrome affects 1 in 3,800 new people every year in the UK*. It is a poorly understood condition and it can be frustrating for patients who are suffering to find peace of mind. The Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Disease in Bath began its rehabilitation service for in...

This programme was funded by grants from the RS MacDonald Charitable Trust and The Hospital Saturday Fund. The first of two programmes on complex regional pain syndrome, or CRPS, which can be described as continuous and sometimes debilitating pain that can be confined to one limb, but has been known to spread to other parts of the body. CRPS is poorly understood, and no direct cause has been ident...

This programme was funded by a grant from The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust. Getting some gentle exercise tops the NHS’ list of ten self-help tips for managing pain, with distraction and communication also playing important roles. In this episode of Airing Pain we see how gardening can help with all three, and the benefit for our minds as well as our bodies. We talk to Craig Lister and Chris Speir...

This programme was funded by a grant from The Schuh Trust. There are around 4.5 million people living with diabetes in the UK, and every day more than 20 leg, foot or toe amputations are carried out as a result of diabetic neuropathy. This is particularly shocking, as four out of five of these amputations could have been avoided with proper care*. People with diabetes are often bombarded with advi...

This programme was funded by a grant from The Schuh Trust. Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis and affects 1 in 40 people in the UK. So why do we still see it as something that exists only in the pages of Victorian novels? In this episode of Airing Pain we go inside the Houses of Parliament and speak with MPs, clinicians, patients and UK Gout Society members to find out why. Wha...

This programme was funded by a grant from The Schuh Trust. Back pain causes more disability than any other condition in the UK[1]. It is the second most common cause of absence from work, resulting in the loss of four million working days per year[2]. This comes at a heavy price not only for the NHS, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the UK economy – reported to be costing each £480 millio...