Chronic pain affects 13% of adults in the UK and about one in five report having to change their job or give up working as a result of symptoms.
Today (Friday, October 30) Aberdeen South MP Anne Begg will visit the University of Aberdeen to hear about the work of an internationally recognised group of researchers and clinicians trying to understand more about chronic pain.
Chronic pain is classed as a pain that lasts more than three months and it can have a debilitating effect on sufferers.
Professor Gary Macfarlane, Professor of Epidemiology at the University and head of the Aberdeen Pain Research Collaboration, said: “We are delighted Anne Begg MP is interested in hearing about the research undertaken at the University of Aberdeen.
“Chronic pain may or may not follow an injury. It can appear, most commonly, in the form of arthritis, particularly osteoarthritis; low back pain, or widespread body pain. It can have a devastating impact on sufferers’ lives and also has a huge cost to the economy.
“Our work into chronic pain covers a wide range of areas and includes research into how common it is, its causes and the ways it can be managed.”
Anne Begg MP, who is chair of the All Party Parliamentary Chronic Pain Group at Westminster, and suffers from chronic pain, added: “Often pain is only treated as part of an individual’s illness rather than being seen as something which is debilitating in itself.
“It may not be the illness or condition which stops a person working, but the pain they suffer.
“A person’s life can be transformed if they have access to good pain management and that is why I am looking forward to learning first hand of the research being carried out in Aberdeen.”
The Labour MP is meeting Professor Macfarlane, members of the Aberdeen Pain Research Collaboration and patient representatives at the conference centre in the Suttie Centre for Teaching and Learning in Healthcare between 10am and 12 noon.