Postgraduate Course: Persistent Pain - Applications and Management in Practice (MMED11002)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Medical School |
College | College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Persistent pain represents a significant global burden affecting up to 1 in 5 people worldwide. Pain affects all people regardless of age, sex, gender, race, ethnicity or geography. However, access to adequate treatment and management is not equal and is often determined by income and healthcare systems.
This course will equip students to critically appraise current theories and concepts and apply to diagnostic and clinically reason treatment options. It will enable students to design patient centred pathways and thereby improve outcomes and patient experience.
Students will apply a critical understanding to complex issues in the clinical environment. A multi-disciplinary perspective will be facilitated to allow cross boundary working, between specialties. The course will use discussion boards, live sessions and sharing reflections and experiences to build a communal body of knowledge. |
| Course description |
Key themes of this course are:
Current concepts and models
Epidemiology and risk factors
Management
Current Concepts and Models:
Students, as clinicians, are expected to see pain patients with complex presentations. Existing concepts do not always explain presentations, causing suffering and distress to patients, and feelings of helplessness within clinical staff. Students will evaluate current pain treatment and management models, to ensure an evidence-based understanding of current research, thereby enabling students to manage and treat patients effectively to reduce distress, suffering and improve outcomes.
Epidemiology and Risk Factors:
The global incidence of persistent pain is greater than cancer, coronary heart disease (CHD) and diabetes mellitus (DM) combined. Understanding contributing factors is vital to preventative and rehabilitative approaches that enable students to ensure patient centred care and pathways within their community and local healthcare systems.
Management:
Clinicians, across all specialties, utilise Pain Science Education (PSE) in consultations and rehabilitation in various settings. This requires in-depth knowledge of concepts of pain; skills in conveying PSE to patients in degrees of suffering and distress, in a way that has utility, is effective and enables patients improve outcomes. Through an interdisciplinary ethos fostered on the course, students will develop advanced levels of application of PSE in practice.
The evidence for pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches to persistent pain will be evaluated by students and will be supported through appraisal of existing guidelines and real-world.
|
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: None |
| Course Start |
MVM Online Learning Block 3 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 8,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 2,
Online Activities 2,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 10,
Formative Assessment Hours 10,
Summative Assessment Hours 60,
Revision Session Hours 4,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
100 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Assessment and Feedback in this course is covered by the University of Edinburgh Assessment and Feedback Principles and Priorities. These can be found at this link https://edwebcontent.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/atoms/files/assessmentfeedbackprinciplespriorities.pdf .
The key principles that underpin assessment activities are evidence-based practice and the application of theory to clinical practice.
Assessment will consist of the following:
Assignment 1 - 10%
Discussion boards
Assignment 2 - 1 x 20%
Reflective blog. 500 words.
Assignment 3 - 70%
Develop a patient focussed resource
Support with essay
Combined total 2000 words |
| Feedback |
Assessment and Feedback in this course is covered by the University of Edinburgh Assessment and Feedback Principles and Priorities. These can be found at this link https://edwebcontent.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/atoms/files/assessmentfeedbackprinciplespriorities.pdf .
Throughout your studies, you will receive regular feedback on your work. This helps to maximise the effectiveness of learning and teaching and enhances your performance. Feedback can be any comment from another person that may result in improving your learning and understanding. It is important to remember that feedback is not always in written form on a marked piece of work. Whilst feedback can take this form, most of the feedback you will receive during your university career may not associated with a mark.
Feedback is provided on all items of in-course assessment, both summative and formative. Formative feedback may take the form of group feedback where only salient points for the whole group are provided.
When marked work is returned to you, it is your responsibility to read and think about the feedback given and not just look at the mark. The feedback gives you an indication of what you did well, what you misunderstood and what you did not address correctly. If you have any questions, please contact the named Course Organiser. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Offer a critical understanding of models proposed for persistent pain (Knowledge/Understanding)
- Critically appraise the value of diagnostic and treatment options for individual patients (Generic cognitive Skills)
- Evaluate and adapt communications to aid understanding, patient activation and behaviour change (Communication, evaluation and numeracy skills)
- Identify and evaluate risk factors for the development of persistent pain
|
Reading List
A list of Learning Resources will be provided to ensure access to appropriate and relevant resources to enable full participation in this course.
Details about the Learning Resource Lists can be found at https://library.ed.ac.uk/research-teaching-staff/resource-lists
Below is a selection of some of the resources that you will be expected to engage with during the course. This is an indicative list and may be amended in light of more recent and relevant resources becoming available.
Boerner, Katelynn E.a; Schechter, Neil L.b; Oberlander, Tim F 2024 Pain and development: interacting phenomena. PAIN 165(11S):p S82-S91 DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003304
Clauw DJ 2024 From fibrositis to fibromyalgia to nociplastic pain: how rheumatology helped get us here and where do we go from here? Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (83)1421-1427
Hancock, M., Smith, A., O Sullivan, P., Schütze, R., Caneiro, J., Hartvigsen, J., O Sullivan, K., McGregor, A., Haines, T., Vickery, A., Campbell, A., & Kent, P. 2024. Patients with worse disability respond best to cognitive functional therapy for chronic low back pain: a pre-planned secondary analysis of a randomised trial. Journal of Physiotherapy, 70(4), 294-301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphys.2024.08.005
Kosek, Eva 2024 The concept of nociplastic pain where to from here. PAIN 165(11S):p S50-S57 DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003305
Nijs, J., Wyns, A., & Hendrix, J. (2024). The importance of stress in the paradigm shift from a tissue- and disease-based pain management approach towards multimodal lifestyle interventions for chronic pain. Revista Brasileira de Fisioterapia, 28(2), 101061-101061. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjpt.2024.101061
Párraga, J. P., & Castellanos, A. (2023). A Manifesto in Defense of Pain Complexity: A Critical Review of Essential Insights in Pain Neuroscience. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 12(22), 7080. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12227080
Reezgit R.r, Beetsma A.J, Catley M.J, Watson J, Ryan C.G, Mosley G.L (2026) Assessing pain science education; the measurement properties of assessment instrument of conceptual change: a narrative and rapid review. Journal of Pain (In Press) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2026.106195
Rizzo, Rodrigo R. N.a,b,*; Wand, Benedict M.c; Leake, Hayley B.d,e; O'Hagan, Edel T.f; Traeger, Adrian C.g; Gustin, Sylvia M.b,h; Moseley, G. Lorimerd,e; Sharma, Sauraba,b; Cashin, Aidan G.a,b; Bagg, Matthew K.c; McAuley, James H.a,b; Bunzli, Samanthai,j. 2024 Why might fears and worries persist after a pain education grounded multimodal intervention for chronic back pain A qualitative study. PAIN Reports 9(6):p e1197, December 2024. | DOI: 10.1097/PR9.0000000000001197
Van Griensven, H., Strong, J., & Unruh, A. M. (Eds.). (2014). Pain: a textbook for health professionals (Second edition.). Churchill Livingstone Elsevier. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
During the course, students will have to demonstrate the ability to work both independently and collaboratively with students from other disciplines. Their knowledge and understanding of the topic will improve, as well as learning generic approaches/skills. As the course is distance learning, it will contribute to their digital literacy, writing and communication skills which can be applied to both clinical and academic environments. They will be expected to be able to bring together and draw from the information provided through the course during their assignment writing. Competences such as structuring of work and accurate referencing should also improve.
Enquiry and Lifelong Learning
Students will be encouraged to be curious about, and critically appraise, existing models of pain. Students will be encouraged to question the current research on application of pain science education and develop their own individual opinions.
Aspiration and Personal Development
Students, through acquiring knowledge and concepts, and from sharing learning with students from multidisciplinary backgrounds around the globe. This will enable students to lead and shape the development of services and improve outcomes in their healthcare settings.
Outlook and Engagement
Through online engagement in discussion boards and live sessions, students will gain new perspectives and apply them into clinical practice, with potential to form local and global networks, thereby enriching the student experience.
Research and Enquiry
Students will be expected to be critical of their sources when appraising pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches. Students will also have opportunities to apply constructive thinking in case studies requiring collaborative problem solving.
Personal and Intellectual Autonomy
Through critical inquiry, reflection and communicating with peers, students will develop independent thinking to be able to articulate their own ideas and opinions.
Personal Effectiveness
Students will be required to manage time and organise tasks to ensure effective learning.
Communication
Most student communication will be textual and require highly developed literacy skills in a variety of styles of academic writing including descriptive, analytical, persuasive and critical. There will be opportunities to develop verbal communication skills through live sessions. Students will be required to communicate with tutors should matters arise within the course or out with the learning environment. |
| Keywords | Persistent pain,chronic pain,pain management,rehabilitation |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Neil Clark
Tel:
Email: Neil.Clark@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Ewelina Skala
Tel: (0131 5)37 1000
Email: eskala2@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
|
|
University Homepage