Back in March, the University of Southampton reached out Dr Rich Harrison about an upcoming interdisciplinary pain research poster event they were organising, extending an invite to any member of staff at the University of Reading with an interest in pain research. As a result, six Reading researchers (including Chris) from Pain Research Reading registered to present, with another three (including both of Chris’ supervisors) accepting the invitation to attend.
The event was designed to act as a conversation starter, bringing together over 60 people (from the University of Southampton, Bournemouth University, the University of Portsmouth, the University of Winchester, the University of Bath, and King’s College London, as well as people from Hampshire & the Isle of Wight, University Hospital Southampton, and Dorset HealthCare University NHS trusts, and Health in Justice Practice Plus Group, Wessex Health Partners, and NIHR ARC Wessex) with the aim of fostering greater collaborative research into pain across the south.
Chris’ request to display a poster was accepted and he took the opportunity to present the same ‘work in progress’ research findings he’d used at Reading Emotions the week before. The poster outlines the current results of a study investigating whether the ability of swear words to disrupt someone’s time perception may play a role in their ability to help people tolerate more pain, too.
Just like at Reading Emotions, the poster proved a real hit, with Chris spending two hours having in-depth conversations and Q&As with people into the methodology behind his findings, what might be causing the pattern of results he’s currently found, and how the swear words participants have to vocalise during the study were selected. He also had two great conversations with Prof. Christina Liossi, editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Pain, who provided really good feedback about the existing knowledge around the attention grabbing nature of pain.
For an inaugural event, the welcome and hospitality extended by the University of Southampton was amazing with the event giving back far, far more than it took. Everyone from Reading who attended all left saying the same thing – we wished it’d been longer! Here’s to the next one where Chris hopes to be able to present the final results from the study.
(He’s still actively recruiting participants, if you’d like to take part, click here)
The study is still ongoing if you’d like to take part, click here.