Research Areas and Strategy
We are lucky to be a national specialist NHS service where research has always been central. The inspiration for our research is a desire to help people more; although our treatments are effective, we need to achieve a deeper positive impact with a greater proportion of people. Also, there is still a long way to go in understanding why pain, in certain circumstances, can become so intensely disabling and distressing.
We were delighted to win the Royal United Hospitals Bath Research Award in 2017.
Our Research Themes
Understanding disablity, distress and effective treatment
Chronic pain is a condition that can cause horrible distress and disruption to life. Indeed, the disability and distress can be worse than other more ‘well recognised’ medical conditions. We want to know how people cope better with this condition, or why they struggle more. We have historically researched variables such as the ability to ‘accept’ pain and the ability to focus on motivating ‘values’.
Chronic pain rehabilitation is, on average, effective. However, some people do not benefit, and we need to make is more consistent and more therapeutically powerful. To do this, we need to know which parts of the rehabilitation (which involves many components like physiotherapy, psychology) are most effective.
Recent projects have focused on why some people do not benefit from treatment (many thanks to those ex-patients who returned questionnaires!) – see here for the paper.
We have also just completed a project, generously funded by the Physiotherapy Research Foundation, on patients’ views on the most helpful aspects of psychologically informed physiotherapy. The paper is here.
Developmental factors and families
We are unique in the UK, in being a lifespan service for children and adults with chronic pain. We see it as essential to research pain in children and adolescents, and not presume that it will be the same as in adults. It is also obvious that parents are critically involved in helping children manage pain.
An example of one of our papers on adolescent pain treatment can be seen here. A classic paper on parenting in pain (by our colleagues at the University of Bath) can be seen here.
Extending knowledge in other areas
Chronic pain is present in many medical conditions, and also in many different clinical settings. We explore whether our understanding and treatment techniques can help elsewhere. We have focused on Painful Diabetic Neuropathy (PDN), on how chronic pain is treated in A&E, and on coping styles in injured servicemen.
You can follow the Unit’s research at @BCPSBath and the Research Lead, Dr Jeremy Gauntlett-Gilbert, at @DrJeremyGG. Jeremy’s Google Scholar page can be found here.
