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.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
MVM Online Learning Block 3 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| 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 . «br /»
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The key principles that underpin assessment activities are evidence-based practice and the application of theory to clinical practice. «br /»
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Assessment will consist of the following: «br /»
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Assignment 1 - 10% «br /»
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Discussion boards «br /»
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Assignment 2 - 1 x 20% «br /»
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Reflective blog. 500 words. «br /»
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Assignment 3 - 70% «br /»
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Develop a patient focussed resource «br /»
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Support with essay «br /»
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Combined total 2000 words «br /»
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If you fail to make a reasonable attempt at any of the assessments in the course, you risk a failing grade for the course, which may have repercussions in your ability to achieve a final award in the programme. |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| 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
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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 |
Not entered |
| 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 |
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