National pain research centre will bring hope to millions

PA 264/09 An expert network of doctors and research scientists is forming the world's first national centre for research into understanding pain in arthritis. Backed by medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign and The University of Nottingham, it will aim to improve treatments for arthritis - the most common cause of chronic pain - which affects more than ten million people in the UK. The charity has awarded funding of £2.5m over five years and the University itself has pledged a further £3m to support the Nottingham-based Arthritis Research Campaign National Pain Centre investigating mechanisms of pain in arthritis. Key partnerships with local NHS Trusts will further strengthen the new venture. The new centre represents an ambitious bid to tackle chronic pain involving clinicians and scientists from different research fields including rheumatology, neuro-imaging and psychology. These experts will come together in a multi-disciplinary, integrated approach to research better treatments for the painful symptoms of arthritis. The researchers' aims over the next five years will be to gain a better understanding of how people experience pain, to use that knowledge to fully understand the biological basis of pain in osteoarthritis, to develop new drugs to treat pain more effectively and to target existing drugs more effectively at individual patients.