Summer 2010 - The British Pain Society

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A personal experience of
the ASM
British Pain Society ASM –
Manchester 2010
Dr Fiona Duncan
Blackpool Victoria Hospital
Bursary recipient
To all at the BPS, thank you for
the bursary to attend the Annual
Scientific Meeting (2010) in
Manchester. The meeting was a
great success, and I do appreciate
the many months of preparation
by Professor Eccleston and the
scientific programme committee.
The venue, catering and general
atmosphere were excellent. You
even organised good weather,
a satellite political debate, and
amazing sunsets, showing
Manchester at its best!
Each and every one of the
plenary speakers was informative
and inspiring. Professor Aziz
explained mechanisms of central
sensitisation so clearly, that I
could relate this to patients I see
in clinical practice. I particularly
enjoyed learning more about
using ketamine as an adjuvant
in the postoperative setting.
The cautions were useful too,
especially as it seems to be the
‘trendy’ drug to prescribe, often
by fairly junior anaesthetists.
Professor Langford’s summary
of progress in inpatient pain
management over the past 20
years was thought provoking,
the way forward is definitely
both education and establishing
national databases. I look forward
to participating in both.
It was good to have the
opportunity to present 2
posters, and spend time with
other presenters. I particularly
appreciate the CD provided with
the abstracts. I also think it was
a good idea to present abstracts
alphabetically rather than dividing
by acute/chronic etc.
A highlight is always meeting
up with colleagues from around
the UK, discovering that we all
have similar problems and I left
enthused with new ideas. I do
appreciate attending SIG meetings
in particular. It was a useful forum
to hear about both local and
national initiatives to which we can
all contribute.
The drinks reception was fun,
although one roving anaesthetist
with a camera made a very strange
request – he wanted to take a
picture of three of us, but from the
back! We must have been looking
very jaded after an extremely busy
conference! Edinburgh is in my
diary now for 2011.
Dr. Claire Goodchild
Institute of Psychiatry
London
Bursary recipient
I would like to thank the British
Pain Society for providing me
with the opportunity to attend this
year’s Annual Scientific Meeting
at Manchester Central in April. I
presented a poster concerning
negative pain-related beliefs
and attitudes about sleep and
enjoyed talking to other health
professionals and researchers
about the role of psychology
in chronic pain and insomnia.
I found both the plenary and
parallel sessions interesting and
insightful.
I found the plenary session given
by Professor Main enlightening
in terms of the contributions
that psychology has made to the
management of chronic pain
over past decades and future
avenues for further improving
pain management. Dr Palermo’s
presentation of her team’s work
on psychological management
of paediatric chronic pain was
also very interesting. Working
in research involving cognitive
behavioural therapy for painrelated
insomnia myself, I was
especially interested in their
computer-based interventions to
overcome barriers to the access of
therapies, which is also a problem
in the UK.
I also enjoyed the short
presentations given by the
researchers nominated for
this year’s poster prize. It was
a refreshing way to promote
contemporary research and
is a strategy that I think more
conferences should employ.
PAI N N E W S S U M M E R 2010 17