Inaugural Chronic Pain Conference an "exceptional success"

Around 50 of the UKs top pain clinicians and researchers joined people with lived experience for the inaugural event at Dundee’s V&A museum on Thursday and Friday last week (23/24th May), jointly hosted by the University of Dundee’s School of Medicine Alleviate Pain Data Hub and The Consortium Against Pain InEquality (CAPE). 

Gordon Milligan, Deputy Director of the Alleviate Pain Data Hub said: "This conference brought together a blend of those who live with chronic pain and those who try to gain a deeper understanding of its causes and effects to try and find new treatments. 

“This open collaboration between the two groups generated lots of productive discussions and everyone felt the conference was a great success."

Dundee was chosen as venue for this special event due to Dundee University’s School of Medicine groundbreaking focus on chronic pain research. This unique event showcased the valuable research being carried out and underlined the importance of putting those with lived experience at the heart of research.

Antony Chuter - Lay Lead at the Alleviate Pain Data Hub said, "The Alleviate and CAPE conference was an exceptional and exciting two-day event.  Pain is stigmatised and stigmatising. So is talking about ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences’. The conference gave researchers and patients a chance to come together, to showcase the work done so far and to highlight the importance and need for much more research into these areas.  By the end of the conference, I feel many people felt seen and hear and better understood."

Around 20 million people across the UK live with some form of chronic pain. It is defined as pain that exists for more than three months. People with chronic pain have described how it negatively affects all aspects of life from family and social interactions to their ability to work effectively and productively. Chronic pain is a common condition which has debilitating effects on individuals, families, society, and the NHS. 

The complex condition has many causes, is influenced by many factors and is co-morbid with a range of conditions such as depression, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Despite the high prevalence, the epidemiology of chronic pain and its outcomes remains incompletely understood. There have been no significant new pharmaceutical interventions in the last decade and therefore there is a strong need to find new treatments to help those suffering from the variety of conditions that cause chronic pain. 

Organisers say conferences like this are vitally important and hope they will potentially inspire new ideas and areas for improvement and research.