INSIDE THE MULTIDISCIPLINARY PAIN TEAM Happy New Year from all of us at Pain Matters. In our first magazine of the new decade, we have invited the Chronic Pain Team from NHS Borders in the south of Scotland into the guest-editor’s chair for issue 74. In a jam-packed issue, they have l

The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). For the first time, they have included chronic pain and provided specific pain diagnoses. Under the new system, chronic pain is classified as either chronic primary pain or chronic s

  NICE guidance on cannabis-based medicines out for consultation   The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued draft guidance for the use of cannabis-based medicines considering the evidence for their use in intractable nausea and vomiting; chroni

Involving patients in researching their own condition – it seems logical, so why is it not more common?  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

Click on the image below to read and download the full PDF leaflet Opioids Opioids are a group of medicines that come from the extract of poppy seeds or other medicines that work in the same way. Types of opioid The first opioids came directly from the poppy seed and include medicines

Click on the image below to read and download the full PDF leaflet   Gabapentin and pregabalin This leaflet is about gabapentin and pregabalin, two drugs which are part of a group sometimes called gabapentinoids. The leaflet will give you some background about gabapentin and preg

Click on the image below to read and download the full PDF leaflet.   Antidepressants Many people living with long-term pain (also known as chronic or persistent pain) are worried about using medicines like antidepressants. They might worry that the doctor thinks it’s ‘all in my

Sex and chronic pain Persistent pain can impact on mood and on many areas of life such as work, exercise and socialising. This leaflet is designed to give advice to people who have found it more difficult or have had to give up sexual activity because of pain It is often a difficult t

Pain Concern has produced three expert information leaflets focusing on current, commonly prescribed pain medications: antidepressants for pain (amitriptyline); gabapentin & pregabalin; and opioids. The purpose of the leaflets is to equip people with authoritative information abou

How pain’s subjectivity makes it difficult to measure, rewiring the brain, and new research that allows patients to visualise their pain This edition is funded by the Plum Foundation. In this edition of Airing Pain, returning contributor Mark Johnson, Director of the Centre for Pain R