Human Pain Research Group

We are carrying out a number of different studies, designed to improve our understanding of pain processing in chronic pain conditions such as Arthritis and Chronic Widespread Pain (Fibromyalgia), which we hope may lead to the development of new treatments for these conditions in the long term. Unlike the pain suffered by patients with Arthritis, which is due to inflammation of their joints, the cause of the pain suffered by patients with Fibromyalgia is not known. It is believed that the pain suffered by Fibromyalgics may be due to the way pain is processed in the brain, rather than a problem occurring at the site of the pain itself. For this reason, investigating the processing of pain in the brain seems an appropriate way to improve our understanding of Fibromyalgia.

The studies we are working on include:

• using positron emission tomography (PET) to image brain activity in chronic pain patients during clinical pain, during acute experimental pain, and when they are in a pain-free condition;
• looking at anticipation of pain and distraction from pain in Fibromyalgia patients, Arthritis patients and healthy control subjects using electroencephalography (EEG) (in collaboration with Prof Rolf-Detlef Treede at Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany, and Dr Geoff Barrett at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL));
• investigating whether patients with Fibromyalgia have a higher hypnotic ability than patients with Arthritis and healthy control subjects (in collaboration with Wendy Gonsalkorale and Vivien Miller at the University Hospital of South Manchester Hypnotherapy Unit).

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