In chronic pain? I am the solution

A recent survey by Lloyds Pharmacy found 77 per cent of people with the agonising condition had suffered for years and almost half of them aren’t seeking regular help from their GP.

So what exactly is chronic pain?

In simple terms, it’s long-term pain as opposed to acute pain, which comes and goes, or the ‘warning pain’ you might get if you burn yourself on the iron.

With chronic pain, there’s very little respite and although it’s generally defined as a pain lasting more than three months, some people have to endure it for years and even decades.

So, where do you turn when you can’t just ‘grin and bear it’?

In south Essex help is at hand.

One of the world’s leading pain specialists has been working at Orsett Hospital, and covering south Essex, for more than 20 years and has dedicated much of his career to building up the hospital’s pain service, which now sees more than 3,000 patients a year and has 17 dedicated staff members.

Dr Simon Thomson, whose title is consultant in pain medicine and neuromodulationis, is at the forefront of advancements in pain management.

He has been describing his work during International Pain Awareness Month, which falls each September.

He explained: “I became interested in pain management when I spent a year in Sydney, Australia in 1989, as part of my speciality training.

“I finished my training in the UK and started at Basildon in 1992, and at age 32, I was the youngest consultant ever appointed at the trust.

“There was no pain service at the time.

“Initially, I was given one clinic session and one theatre session.

Over the years, it has built and built.

“People with chronic pain are more at risk of depression and social isolation.

“Often, they can feel they are passed from pillar to post, with very little answer to what is actually causing their agony.”

But Dr Thomson is doing his best to change that.

He added: “When patients come to me, they often say ‘this is the first time anyone has actually listened to me’.

“They are the most important part of the process and I try to make them feel that by listening to their worries and anxieties and explaining things in a language they understand.

“This idea that pain always has a physical explanation, caused by tissue damage and repaired with surgery, is a view I have had to, and continue to, challenge.”

Dr Thomson has become an expert on Neurostimulation – a treatment which involves using electrical stimulation to the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves to decrease the symptoms of chronic pain.

It can also help restore function and improve quality of life for sufferers.

Over 25,000 pocket-watch sized neurostimulators, sometimes described as a “pain pacemakers”, are implanted worldwide each year.

Neurostimulation can elicit the body’s own pain-relieving substances to help reduce longstanding pain through minimally invasive means.

Dr Thomson added: “When I was in Australia, the guy I was working with had been doing spinal cord stimulation for a couple of years and that was my first introduction to the technique.”

The first spinal cord neurostimulator was implanted in an attempt to decrease pain in 1967. By the Eighties, spinal cord stimulation became more popular, and with regular technological advancements and clinical experience, neurostimulation techniques continue to evolve.

Dr Thomson, who is president of the International Neuromodulation Society, has recently published four papers, which offer the first comprehensive expert guidance on the appropriate use of neurostimulation for pain.

He hopes to get more sufferers this treatment in the future.

He stressed: “We want to spell out the right way to use the technique and the four papers will form a comprehensive discussion about the appropriate uses of neuromodulation therapies.

“We believe it is important selected patients with chronic pain have access to neurostimulation treatments, administered by appropriately trained practitioners.

“This is my life’s work and I am incredibly passionate about it.”