A patient-focused programme to address distress linked with pain

A Versus Arthritis-funded project led by researchers at Keele University, Royal Holloway (University of London) and University of Southampton, is looking at how to differentiate pain-related distress from clinical depression.

We are looking for GPs willing to share their experiences of managing people with emotional distress and pain.

If you are interested in getting involved, please contact us by 31 August 2021 at the email addresses shown below.

Who we are:

We are researchers at Keele University, Royal Holloway (University of London) and University of Southampton, who aim to understand chronic and/or persistent pain-related distress, in order to advise doctors how to identify it better and avoid mistaking it for clinical depression.

We have spoken to people with ‘persistent’ or ‘chronic’ pain, who describe low mood and negative thoughts and feelings which are often labelled as ‘depression’ and treated in the same way as those who have depression without pain.

What we aim to do:

a) Understand how general practitioners currently manage people with persistent pain and distress, and why and what they think would be helpful;

b) Explore the experiences and perceptions of people living with chronic and/ or persistent pain and distress, and how they feel about it;

c) Understand which interventions people with persistent pain and pain-related distress have found acceptable and useful.

Once we understand what makes people who live with persistent pain distressed, we will develop a new intervention to help them.

If you work as a GP and would like to share your experiences on how you manage people with emotional distress and pain:

• Please share your views in a single interview between 30 and 45 minutes, at a time convenient to you, over the telephone, or using other software such as ‘Microsoft Teams’.
• Your time will be reimbursed.

All interviews will be completely confidential, and you will not be able to be identified in any reports.

This study has been approved by the Keele University Research Ethics Committee.

For further information, please contact: Dr Noureen Shivji or Prof Carolyn Chew-Graham.

E-mail: n.shivji@keele.ac.uk; c.a-graham@keele.ac.uk.