As part of PAINSTORM, we are planning a programme of activities involving people living with neuropathic pain as well as the general public.
The Puzzle of Pain (June 2025, University of Reading)
In an exciting day hosted by Pain Research Reading in association with PAINSTORM, the mysteries of pain were unravelled through talks, hands-on demos, workshops, interviews and art installations.
Guests also got to be part of the audience for a live recording of the PAINSTORM podcast - PAINCAST - hosted by BBC Radio 3's Fiona Talkington in the Great Hall. The panel included Professor Andrew Rice, President of the IASP, and Professor David Bennett Professor of Neurology and Neurobiology at the University of Oxford.
Pain Research Reading is a group of academics, clinicians and patients that work in collaboration to develop our understanding of pain through research. They lead projects and disseminate findings to improve the experiences of those living with pain.
NeuPSIG workshop (September 2023, Lisbon)
If you attended the 2023 Congress on Neuropathic Pain in Lisbon this September, you might have come across our workshop "Patient Lived Experience: Adding Value to Neuropathic Pain Research". This interactive session focused on three areas of Patient & Public Involvement (PPI) in pain research: (1) what PPI is, what it is not, why it is essential, and how to build PPI confidence and capacity; (2) a case study of the importance and impact of PPI in the PAINSTORM consortium including practical tips and resources to support PPI and its evaluation; and (3) the lived experience perspective of being involved in pain research, education, publishing, and pushing forward ground-breaking initiatives through IASP's Global Alliance of Partners for Pain Advocacy (GAPPA).
Expressions of Pain (March 2023, Aberdeen Art Gallery)
While everyone has experienced pain at some point in their life, not all pain is experienced the same way. Sometimes pain comes and goes, sometimes pain stays and never leaves. Pain has been expressed creatively in many different ways but how can we best communicate it? How can people living with pain find the best way to describe their own experience, so that they can help others understand what they are going through?
"Expressions of Pain" is a workshop where pain meets art and art meets pain. In this interactive workshop, the aim is to make the invisible, visible and we will do this by using different media to illustrate pain.
This British Science Week event, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the University of Aberdeen ISSF Fund, is an Advanced Pain Discovery Platform PAINSTORM consortium collaboration between people living with pain, researchers from the Universities of Aberdeen and Dundee, and artists from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee.
