Pain Counts – Raising Awareness About Pain

September is Pain Awareness Month – a global initiative to raise awareness about all things pain, including pain management, pain science, and pain research. The theme for this year is Pain Counts, which sheds light on the significant burden and impact that chronic pain has on people.

Pain Management

This year, the International Association for the Study of Pain is focusing on the importance of having an individually-tailored, multi-disciplinary, and multi-modal approach to pain management. That means that pain care is personalised, involves a team of different medical and health professionals (e.g.: pain physician, psychologist, psychiatrist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, specialist nurses, etc), and involves a combination of different treatments (e.g.: medicines, minor procedures, surgery, physical and exercise therapy, psychological therapy, etc), depending on the type of pain, the cause of pain, and the patient’s specific needs.

Pain Research

Pain research is another focus. Chronic pain is a complex condition that we still don’t fully understand and is often difficult to treat. Unfortunately, many people with chronic pain struggle to find meaningful pain relief with currently available treatments, and may endure years of trialling different therapies without success, or find that treatments that once provided good relief aren’t working well any more. This is where clinical trials come into focus.

Clinical trials offer patients access to potential new treatments, such as medications or medical devices, for pain. Eligible patients trial the investigational treatment under the direction and care of a medical professional and a research team.

As part of our contribution to Pain Awareness Month, we produced the following video in which we talk about the importance of clinical trials in developing new and effective treatments for pain:

Play Video about Genesis Research Services Video - Pain Studies and Clinical Trials

To learn more about clinical trials and what they involve, read our blog series:

Chronic Pain Forum

Our video was produced as part of a collaborative video series led by specialist pain medicine physician, Dr Marc Russo, director of Genesis Research Services and Hunter Pain Specialists. The video series covers a range of important topics presented by a multi-disciplinary team of experts in the field.

To view the entire video series, visit the Chronic Pain Forum, or use the video playlist below.