Health Awareness
Managing Pain 2020
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COVID-19 and the impact on the pain patient
Chronic pain is a prevalent condition that causes significant functional disability and reduced quality of life. In Europe alone, almost one in five individuals report having moderate or severe chronic pain. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic means that the care of individuals with pain has been significantly impacted. Many services for patients have been...
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Developments in recognising chronic pelvic pain
Living with any chronic pain imposes a heavy economic and social burden. The Pelvic Pain Support Network (PPSN) is a patient and volunteer led charity. Established in 2006, the charity supports those with undiagnosed as well as diagnosed, long-term (chronic) pelvic pain, by highlighting this much neglected area and improving access to care for patients....
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Recent advances in management of phantom limb pain
Among the wide-ranging presentations of chronic pain, phantom limb pain is considered to be the most curious and challenging to overcome. In the United States, about 1.7 million individuals were estimated to be living with limb loss and this number is projected to increase to 3.6 million by the year 2050. Up to 98% of...
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How to find long-term gain for long-term pain
Pain specialists call for ‘right patient, right treatment, right time’ approach to the treatment of long-term pain. Specialists in pain management say that one of the most common problems with health systems is that patients are not referred to the correct treatment for their specific pain at the right time. This can be due to...
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New approach in research on two pelvic pain disorders
Endometriosis and interstitial cystitis affect millions worldwide. The causes of both diseases remain unknown, there is no cure and pain frequently persists and can worsen. Status of the conditions The recently updated International Classification of Diseases, ICD 11 includes the category “chronic visceral pain from persistent inflammation in the pelvic region”, hence recognising the pain...
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Research will help ease the misery of phantom limb pain
More needs to be done to understand phantom limb pain and the management strategies that help people cope with it, says David Rose, Chair of Trustees at The Limbless Association. What is phantom limb pain? It’s a phenomenon where the nervous system refuses to accept the loss of a limb, resulting in a nervous response...
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Chronic pain research is “desperately underfunded”
Incidence of chronic pain is rising, yet not enough treatments are available. In this underfunded field, more translational research is urgently needed. When Dr Bernhard Frank started work in the field of pain research two decades ago, the incidence of chronic non-malignant pain affected around five to 10% of the adult population. Now it affects...
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Spinal cord stimulation for patients with chronic arm, leg or spine pain
Spinal cord stimulation is an increasingly helpful technique in the treatment of carefully selected patients with low back and leg or arm pain that has persisted beyond standard surgical treatments. We know that chronic pain has a profound impact on patients; beyond the physical pain involving complex changes in the brain and the disability, it...
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Fibromyalgia steals your energy, choices and your future
Fibromyalgia is not only a chronic pain condition (although that is how most people come to know it) – it drains your energy while family, friends and you, grieve for your previous life. Fibromyalgia or, ‘fibro’, can alter the life of anyone. All over pain, non-refreshing sleep and fatigue are the symptoms that become your...
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Five tips for restoring balance when living with chronic pain
Pictured above: Liz Gill, Vice Chairman of the British Porphyria Association BPA, with her sister, Sue. A discussion with my sister, Sue, a fellow porphyria patient, revealed five techniques that helped her to regain a sense of normality, after life in her twenties was torn apart by acute porphyria attacks and crippling chronic pain. Pain...
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Migraine – how much control do you actually have?
Some migraine sufferers consider they can trigger a migraine. Some have symptoms before headache, which can be mistaken for triggers. How much control over whether you have an attack or not do you really hold? Migraine triggers Many people with migraine identify factors, such as foods and bright lights, that they consider as triggers for...
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Endometriosis affects 1.5 million of those assigned female at birth – have you heard of it?
Have you heard of endometriosis? Symptoms include chronic pelvic pain, painful bowel movements and painful sex. It’s suffered by 10% of women and those assigned female at birth, and the chances are you know someone with the disease. Yet, 74% of men don’t know what endometriosis is, nor do 62% of young women, despite the...
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Beating joint pain: it takes muscles
Joint pain is incredibly common and painkillers don’t work very well. However, building strong muscles substantially reduces pain. Causes of joint pain and the current treatments Joint pain can be due to arthritis or inflamed tendons (the ends of muscles that anchor them to bone), or a mixture of both. There are many different types...
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Why chronic pain patients’ voices are important!
Chronic pain patients’ needs, now and in the future, should be the cornerstone of any further developments. This should be applied in research projects, therapy developments, social/psychological support and economic support. In short, all actions needed to help patients to cope with their limitations because of their chronic pain. Surveys into chronic pain patients’ needs...
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The symptoms and stages of a migraine
The debilitating effects of migraine are poorly understood. To understand migraine is to realise it is much more than ‘just a headache’ and that, during the most productive years of life, its impact is huge. Migraine is ‘featureful’ In reality, a migraine attack will follow four or five stages, each occurring with a range of...
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“The pain was so bad I thought I was going to die”
Daisy Swaffer’s whole life is consumed by migraine. She reveals her symptoms, why she had to give up work because of the disease, and what she does to manage the pain. The first time Daisy Swaffer experienced a migraine attack, she felt she was going to die. “I thought something had exploded in my brain...
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Isolation is daily reality for those with chronic pain
As lockdown is eased for some, those with chronic pain continue to face isolation and anxiety. Will the experience help us to be more open minded and compassionate? Over the past few months, we’ve all experienced restrictions on our lives and the subsequent feelings of isolation, disconnect and anxiety. But these experiences were a daily...
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Revealing the painful truth about migraine
Migraine is often dismissed as ‘just a headache’. But the truth about this misunderstood neurological disease is a lot more painful, debilitating and isolating. If you experience the pain and other debilitating symptoms of migraine on a regular basis, it’s easy to feel helpless and alone. “It’s an incredibly isolating disease,” says Dr Joshua Cohen,...
