The Wright Society Attend Lecture at Guy’s and St Thomas’

The Wright Society was extremely lucky to be invited to sit in on a Fourth Year medical student lecture at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital on Tuesday. The focus was pain management, and the lecture featured discussions on what pain is, how it is assessed and how it is treated.

We learnt about the complexities of pain itself and the factors that influence a person’s perception and tolerance of pain. We found out that pain is made up of multiple layers, including nociception, sensation and emotion, and that the pathway from stimulus to pain is mediated by factors such as personality and anxiety. We then heard more about the mechanism of pain sensation, how it is assessed effectively in different presentations and how it can be best treated. This included ways to objectify a person’s pain, using number or face scales, and how this can be combined with contextual factors like existing medical conditions to identify an effective treatment.

Finally, we heard about different pharmacological treatments like opiates and spinal blocks, and how these are administered and managed safely. The Wright Society are extremely grateful to Joe Lipton who delivered the lecture and answered our questions in great detail, and to the Fourth Year medical students who provided us with extra useful information.

Emily, Oxted School