Selected Recent Publications

Thriving when living with chronic pain: A qualitative evidence synthesis of individuals’ experiences in the British Journal of Health Psychology - https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjhp.70000

While having chronic pain can often have negative impacts on different aspects of life, some people are able to live well despite it. This review looks at what personal qualities and approaches help individuals not just cope, but thrive with chronic pain. The study suggests that approaches to chronic pain such as remaining open to new pain management strategies, building supportive communities and proactively taking part in meaningful activities can be important to living well with chronic pain. You can read a summary of this article here; https://www.simplypsychology.org/positive-mindset-and-meaningful-connections-help-people-thrive-despite-chronic-pain.html

 

The Interpersonal Experiences of Autistic Women and Birthing People in the Perinatal Period; A systematic review using the Autistic SPACE Framework in the Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40611564/

Autistic people often don’t feel understood or supported in healthcare, but we know little about their experiences during pregnancy and after birth. This review looked at how autistic women and birthing people feel when using maternity services. It found they often felt overwhelmed, judged, and misunderstood, and that the care they received wasn’t tailored to their needs. These findings show that more autism awareness and training is needed to improve autistic people’s experiences of healthcare in the perinatal period.

 

Chronic pelvic pain treatment, understanding what matters; a social media survey in the Journal of Reproduction and Fertility - https://raf.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/raf/6/1/RAF-24-0038.xml

Chronic Pelvic Pain (CPP) is persistent pain in the lower abdomen or pelvis for at least 6 months. It is common and affects about 1 in 6 women in the UK. To improve treatment, it is important to understand people’s treatment experiences and treatment needs. We ran a survey on social media in May and June 2023 to hear from people living with CPP. Nearly 900 people took part. Many said they had to wait a long time to get treatment, and that their treatment journeys were very different from one another. Overall, most people were not happy with the treatment they received. People told us that good treatment should help reduce their pain and improve quality of life. They also said it was important to understand their pain, learn how to manage it, and understand the treatments offered. Based on this, health care professionals should give people information to understand and manage their condition better, as well as trying to reduce pain.

 

Biopsychosocial Approaches for the Management of Female Chronic Pelvic Pain: A systematic Review in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology - https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1471-0528.17987

PMP researchers and healthcare professionals looked at different ways to treat chronic pelvic pain by considering not just the physical symptoms, but also the emotional and social factors that can affect pain. This kind of approach is called a “biopsychosocial” approach. It means understanding how things like stress emotions, and daily life impact someone’s pain and creating treatments that address all of these areas. The review found that biopsychosocial therapeutic approaches, like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Acceptance Commitment Therapy, which focus on how people manage their thoughts, feelings and behaviours, were especially helpful. These treatments not only helped reduce pain but also improved emotional well-being and coping abilities in individuals with chronic pelvic pain. This systematic review helped our clinicians pull together and make sense of the best biopsychosocial approaches to female chronic pelvic pain, so that we can understand what really works and make better decisions about the future directions of our service.

 

Moving pain management programmes into the digital age: development and evaluation of an online PMP for people with chronic pain in the Journal of Frontiers in Pain Research - https://painrelieffoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/fpain-05-1337734.pdf

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the pain management programme (PMP) had to switch from in-person group sessions to online sessions. This study looked at how well the online version (called the Online Pain Management Programme, or OPMP) worked compared to the original face-to-face (F2F) programme. Only those assessed as likely to benefit from the online option were offered OPMP. The results showed that people who took part in the OPMP improved just as much as those who attended in person. In fact, 81% of the online participants said they would definitely recommend it to others with similar conditions. However, just over half still felt that the face-to-face version would be better. So, the researchers concluded that the online programme can be effective, but it may be most suitable for people who are a good fit for that format. As a result of this study, our service continues to prioritise F2F PMP, these are likely suitable for the majority of our patients.