On Tuesday 7 July 2020, Airing Pain returns, with producer Paul Evans looking into opioid medication for chronic pain. Tune in as he speaks to two world-reknowned pain specialists, a GP and a chronic pain patient who maganged to reduce her medication, looking into the opioid addiction crisis, the rates of prescribing and how effective these drugs really are for dealing with chronic pain.

Watch the trailer above for more details

Contributors:

• Dr Srinivasa Raja, Professor of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine and Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Maryland, USA
• Dr Cathy Stannard, Consultant in Pain Medicine and Pain Transformation Programme Clinical Lead for NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group
• Louise Trewern, Vice Chair of the Patient Voice Committee at the British Pain Society
• Dr Jim Huddy, Cornwall GP and Clinical Lead for Chronic Pain at NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group.

Available to listen on our website, or download from wherever you get your podcasts.

In Spring of 1995, the first Newsletter of the Pain Concern (UK) Lothian Group was issued. The newsletter was printed at a volunteer’s house on ordinary copy paper and had articles from clinicians and patients. Demand grew and by Issue 22 (Autumn 2000) it was Pain Concern News and had contributions from around the UK. Issue 26 (December 2001) was the first to be professionally laid out and printed using our partners, Creative Link, in North Berwick. Glossy paper and a touch of colour on the front page warranted a rebrand and the title Pain Matters was born. Issue 41 was the first in full colour with an article by regular contributor Margaret Graham on how visualising colours affect mood. Issue 50 was a landmark with a then radical article on medicinal cannabis and a brazen close-up of a cannabis plant on the front cover. We now regularly invite clinical teams to guest-edit their own edition, so readers get news direct from the coalface of pain management. There is a digital edition, an email supplement and hardcopies are distributed to pain clinics across the UK. It has come a long way from a volunteer printing a few dozen copies in their house. Thank you for reading and supporting Pain Matters!

Our new issue, Pain Matters 75, is due to come out on Monday 25 May. As this issue marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the very first Pain Concern (UK) Lothian Group newsletter, later to become the Pain Matters we know today, we have gone back to where it all started. The Lothian Group was a patient support group set up by members of the Astley Ainslie Hospital pain management programme, so it seems appropriate that this issue is being guest-edited by the Chronic Pain Management Service from NHS Lothian, based at the same hospital.

This issue’s theme is compassion-focused therapy, with the team showing the different ways they use compassion as part of a holistic pain management approach. A lot has changed in the world since our last issue, and here at Pain Concern, we think that compassion is something which we could all use more of at the moment.

Buy or subscribe at painconcern.org.uk/publications/pain-matters-magazine/.

Or why not try our digital version, available at pocketmags.com/pain-matters-magazine.

Also, our Pocketmags sale is still running, so if you buy an annual subscription by midnight on the 25th May, you will also be able to choose any 4 back issues. In total, that is 8 magazines for the price of a one year’s subscription – only £6.99!