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SPaRC NRS Pain 15th Annual Scientific Meeting
Date: 05/12/2025 to 05/12/2025 Venue: Malmaison, Dundee
SPaRC and the NHS Research Scotland Pain Specialty Group will host the 15th Annual Scientific Meeting on 5 December 2025 at Malmaison in Dundee
Guest speakers include:
- Professor David Bennett, Oxford University;
- Brona Fullen, Associate Professor, University College Dublin
Registration closes 21 November 2025. Please contact Jacqui Pearson to be added to the waiting list. A programme for the day can be found at the bottom of this page.
Event documents and links
ePosters
Poster voting is now open.
- Reported outcomes of regular supported self-management; Sonia Cottom
- Outcome measures and Implementation Strategies for Complex Interventions in Acute Pain Management Trials, A Scoping Review; Shouq Saleh AlGhamdi
- Communicating Chronic Pain in young adults aged 18-30 years old; Emma Scott Smith
- A Qualitative Evidence Synthesis of Adolescent Self-Management in Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain; Catherine Cairns Leyman
- Who is providing pain care? Mapping chronic pain services across Scotland using Freedom of Information (FOI) requests; Cassandra Macgregor
- A Single-cell Sorting Technique to Profile Canine Dorsal Root Ganglion Neurons; Paula Ledesma Fernandez
- Distinct pathways to vulnerability: structural and functional reward system alterations in people with chronic pain, depression, and adverse childhood experiences; Georgia Antoniou
- Spinal Pathways to the Superior Colliculus: Evidence for a Prominent Lateral Spinal Nucleus Projections; Mai Abu Hajer
- Toward a Co-Designed Decision Support Tool for Physical Activity in Chronic Pain: Findings from Patient Focus Groups; Ian-Ju Liang
- Anatomical characterisation of calbindin-expressing cold-selective neurons belonging to the anterolateral system; Wenhui Ma
- A novel pathway for managing and evaluating radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of lumbar facet joints — initial findings; Cameron Sanderson
- Evaluation of a Digital Solution for the Assessment of Pain in Scottish Care Services; Margaret Dunham
- Patient-Reported Experiences of Chronic Pain in Scottish Primary Care; Ian-Ju Liang
- Selective innervation of cold-responsive lamina I projection neurons by Trpm8-expressing afferents in mouse spinal cord; Aimi Razlan
- Alleviate Pain Data Hub: Making Chronic Pain Data Discoverable and Reusable; Christian Cole
- The impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on sensory thresholds in adults living with Multimorbidity And/or chronic Pain (the ACE-MAP Study): an observational feasibility study; Dhan Senaratne
- How best to present clinical outcome data from Pain Management Programmes (PMPs) to potential participants? A focus group of clinicians and graduates of the Scottish National Pain Management Programme (SNPMP); Lars Williams
- Investigating The Relationship Between DNA Methylation Age and Chronic Pain; Jade Heatley
Programme
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09:00 - 09:30 |
Registration, coffee and networking |
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Opening Session 09:30 - 09:35 |
Welcome and introduction to the Scottish Pain Research Community (SPaRC) 15th Annual Scientific Meeting Professor Lesley Colvin, Chair of SPaRC/Clinical Lead of NRS Pain Network |
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09:35 - 09:45 |
Update on the National Framework for Chronic Pain: Scottish National Framework for pain - where are we now and where are we going? Jacquelyn Watson, National Clinical Lead for Chronic Pain, Scottish Government |
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Session One |
Keynote Presentation, Oral Presentations / Q&A and Datablitz Chaired by Professor Lesley Colvin |
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09:45 - 10:15 |
Keynote Presentation One Human Pain Channelopathies Professor David Bennett, Oxford University |
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10:15 - 10:30 |
Long-term opioid and gabapentinoid related harms among adults with chronic kidney disease and multimorbidity: a time-updated, population-based cohort study Chris Grant |
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10:30 - 10:45 |
Characterisation of pain and tactile phenotypes in two rat models of SYNGAP1 haploinsufficiency Katarzyna Mazur |
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10:45 - 11:10 |
Datablitz Chaired by: Professor Tim Hales and Associate Professor Line Caes |
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11:10 – 11:30 |
Morning Coffee Break and Networking |
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Session Two |
Oral Presentations and Q&A Chaired by: Dr Andrew Bretherick |
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11:30 - 11:50 |
New and Noteworthy Sng and sngception: a proposed novel pathway for fibromyalgia-like chronic pain Dr Guy Bewick, University of Aberdeen |
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11:50 - 12:05 |
Shifting the distribution of risk for high-impact chronic pain: targets for population-level interventions Marcus Beasley |
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12:05 - 12:20 |
Predictors of neuropathic pain medication prescribing and persistence in Scotland: Development and evaluation of multivariable prediction models Mia E. Koponen |
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12:20 - 12:35 |
Injured primary afferent neurons drive ongoing, spontaneous neuropathic pain Andrew Cooper |
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12:35 - 12:50 |
Adverse childhood experiences and chronic pain in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children: a Structured Life Course Modelling Approach Ross MacDonald |
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12:50 - 13:05 |
PPI Session Update and Example of PPIE in Pain Research across Scotland Line Caes, Katie Allan, Gordon Liddle |
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13:05 - 14:00 |
Lunch and Poster Viewing: Poster vote using the QR Code |
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Session Three |
Keynote Presentation, Oral Presentations and Q&A Chaired by Ms Cass MacGregor |
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14:00 - 14:30 |
Keynote Presentation Two Adding insult to injury: Spinal cord injury pain Associate Professor Brona Fullen, University College Dublin |
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14:30 - 14:45 |
HSP90 inhibition improves morphine analgesia by restricting β-arrestin2 recruitment to μ opioid receptors Sam Singleton |
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14:45 - 15:00 |
Associations of pain with reduced cognitive, and physical, performance in early relapsing remitting MS are not fully accounted for by sedative medications Peter Foley |
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15:00 - 15:15 |
Analysing the Impact of Gabapentinoid Reclassification on Prescribing Rates of Antidepressants Recommended for Neuropathic Pain Treatment in the UK Natalia Dygas |
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15:15 - 15:35 |
Mid-Afternoon Coffee Break |
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Session Four |
Oral Presentations and Q&A Chaired by: Professor Gary Macfarlane |
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15:35 - 15:50 |
The impact of adverse childhood experiences on DNA methylation age Hannah Russell |
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15:50 - 16:05 |
Lessons in Implementation and Evaluation from a Systematic Review of Chronic Pain Policies in the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand Nabeeha Attique |
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16:05 - 16:20 |
Change in pain severity and cognitive decline in mid-to-later life Salomé Andres |
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Closing Session 16:20– 16:30 |
Prizes For Oral and Poster Presentations and Closing Remarks Professor Gary Macfarlane, University of Aberdeen |
