16 | FOREVER Keele
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Keele researchers helping GPs support patients with painrelated distress
A team of researchers at Keele University working with colleagues at the Universities of Southampton and Royal Holloway have developed a new framework for GPs to help them better support patients who are suffering distress associated with persistent pain .
Led by Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham , the study looked at the perspectives of both GPs and people with persistent musculoskeletal pain , to explore their understanding of how their condition might cause them to experience distress or depression .
The goal of the qualitative study , which has been published in May in the British Journal of General Practice , was to understand how people with persistent pain and GPs distinguished between distress and depression , and to improve interactions between GPs and these patients in order to make consultations more effective and improve outcomes for the patients .