• Can stress cause chronic pain? The research, explained… with Cormac Ryan, Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation at Teesside University.

• What can pain do to relationships? What can relationships do to pain? Pain masking, social withdrawal, the power of attunement… with Rebecca Pearson, Professor of Developmental Psychology and Epidemiology at Manchester Metropolitan University.

• How do sex and gender impact pain? Sex hormones, gender identity, social modelling… with Katelynn Boerner, Assistant Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of British Columbia.

The British Pain Society – the interviews in this episode were recorded at their 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting.

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• How does acute short-term pain turn into chronic, persistent pain? Kathleen Sluka explains that people who experience psychological trauma at young ages are more likely to have chronic pain later in life. What scientists think is happening is that psychological trauma or other stressful events actually change your immune system.
• Shafiq Skikander adds that a lot of patients with fibromyalgia may have had early life stressors. In addition, when they come to clinic presenting with fibromyalgia, they usually have a history of depression.

• Gareth Hathway explains that slowly but surely, our understanding of the basic mechanisms is advancing. We now understand that babies do feel pain, young people do feel pain. It has a long-term consequence. We need a specialist approach to managing pain at every part of the life course. We need to think about how we measure that pain and how we treat that pain.

• how does acute, short term pain turn into chronic, persistent pain?
• Why do early life experiences affect later life pain?
• And why do existing tools for measuring pain fall short?

• Dr. Clive Kelly discusses research on co-occurring conditions in neurodivergence, highlighting varied symptoms and how pain perception differs among individuals.
• Dr Jessica Eccles talks about her research into the relationship between joint hypermobility and neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD and autism.
• We hear from Ren Martin, an autistic learning disability nurse and mother of three neurodivergent children, and Ceri Reid of Parents Voices in Wales, advocating for better neurodiversity and mental health services.
• Throughout the episode, we hear from Imogen Warner, whose writings are featured in the Autistic Girls Network, and who highlights the reality of being a young autistic person.
  
  

• Dr. Clive Kelly, Consultant Physician and Rheumatologist, James Cook University Hospital and University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
• Dr Jessica Eccles, Reader in Brain-Body Medicine at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
• Ren Martin, neurodevelopmental specialist.
• Ceri Reid, neurodivergent mother and founder of Parents Voices in Wales.
• Imogen Warner, student with lived experience of autism and chronic pain.
• Jane Green MBE, founder of SEDSConnective