£1.7m grant awarded to study on stress and chronic pain

A significant boost has been given to the understanding and potential treatment of chronic widespread pain, with the University of Liverpool securing a substantial grant of over £1.7 million from the prestigious Wellcome Career Development Award Fellowship.

The substantial funding has been awarded to Dr. Andrew Marshall, a Senior Lecturer in Pain Neuroscience and Honorary Consultant Clinical Neurophysiologist at the University. His groundbreaking project aims to unravel the intricate ways in which stress contributes to the development and persistence of chronic widespread pain – a debilitating condition that afflicts millions globally and costs the UK economy an estimated £10 billion annually.

At the heart of Dr. Marshall’s ambitious project lies the hypothesis that chronic stress, particularly when intertwined with early life adversity—a factor regrettably more prevalent in lower socioeconomic groups—can ‘prime’ the nervous system. This insidious priming creates a vulnerability, leaving the body predisposed to long-term pain even in the absence of overt injury or disease. His work promises to shed light on poorly understood ‘nociplastic pain syndromes,’ a category of pain where the nervous system is the primary driver, and which are known to disproportionately affect women

To unravel these connections, the study will employ cutting-edge techniques, most notably microneurography — a method of recording signals from individual sensory nerve fibres — to identify signs of ‘hyperalgesic priming’. This is a pain condition in which stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, along with immune system changes, make pain-sensing nerves hypersensitive, creating an exposure to chronic pain.

As Dr. Andrew Marshall eloquently states, reflecting on the profound impact of this puzzling condition: “Chronic pain devastates lives, yet we still don’t fully understand how it takes hold—especially in cases where there’s no clear physical cause. This grant allows us to look directly at how stress can prime the peripheral nerves, potentially years before symptoms appear, leaving them in a highly sensitive state to future pain stimuli or ‘triggers’.”

The implications of this pioneering research are profound. It’s hoped the work will uncover early biological markers that could predict who is at risk of developing chronic pain and test new interventions to reverse nerve hypersensitivity. By targeting the very early stages of pain development, this research at the University of Liverpool could pave the way for breakthrough treatments and preventative strategies, offering a fresh wave of hope to millions living with chronic pain.