This webinar - held on 13 March 2024 - was produced by the International Association for the Study of Pain's Pain and Trauma Special Interest Group. This group aims to:

• Promote the recognition and appropriate treatment of pain resulting from trauma.
• Promote mutual education and training of healthcare workers who care for survivors of trauma.
• Promote the liaison and exchange of information between pain treatment services and organizations working with survivors of trauma.
• Foster research on all aspects of pain resulting from trauma.
• Establish an international forum within the pain field for discussion and action, using knowledge about pain to mitigate the health effects of trauma.

Health and social care professionals need to constantly evolve to stay relevant. Increased appreciation for the broad influences on the individual pain experience can drive introspection regarding these professionals' thinking and practices. Historically, theories describing the complexity of pain have often been too simplistic – and a narrow focus on the biomedical approach has been hard to resist. As such, a better understanding of the sensitivity of the nervous system and the body’s response to threat or danger seems important across all areas of healthcare. Similarly, the entirety of one's life experiences are likely to contribute to a susceptibility in experiencing pain.

A parallel body of work has been exploring issues of trauma – not traumatic injury – but the protective response of the body to distressing and overwhelming life events. This presentation brought the current concepts of pain and trauma together - and drew attention to those challenged by pain and whose trauma is under recognized.

Participants included:
-- Dominic Aldington, FFPMRCA, FRCA, National Health Service, UK
-- Lester Jones, PhD, Singapore Institute of Technology