Project overview

Psychological factors, such as thoughts and feelings; and social factors, including personal relationships and lifestyle can affect chronic pain alongside biological factors.

We don’t fully know which of these are most important, or how they combine to affect people’s experience of pain. To find out what is important, this project will focus on how people think and feel about pain and how relationships with others affect their pain, while considering wider social and environmental influences on pain.

At each stage of the project, researchers will be guided by the experiences of people living with pain.

This Consortium to Research Individual, Interpersonal and Social Influences in Pain (CRIISP) project is part of the Advanced Pain Discovery Platform (APDP), a five-year, £24 million initiative supported by the UKRI Strategic Priorities fund, aiming to break through the complexity of pain by establishing a national platform delivering discovery and early translational science.

Funders

This is a joint and equal investment from UKRI and the charity Arthritis UK through the APDP initiative. For UKRI, the initiative is led by the Medical Research Council (MRC), with support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Partners

• Cardiff University
• Keele University
• Royal Holloway, University of London
• University College London (UCL)
• University of Bath
• University of Bristol
• University of Southampton
• University of the West of England

Team members

• Prof Ed Keogh (Project PI)
• Dr Lisa Austin
• Prof Nadia Berthouze (University College London)
• Prof Carolyn Chew-Graham (Keele University)
• Prof Ernest Choy (Cardiff University)
• Prof Christopher Eccleston
• Dr Tom Fincham Haines
• Dr Emma Fisher
• Prof Rachael Gooberman-Hill (University of Bristol)
• Dr Abbie Jordan
• Dr Christof Lutteroth
• Prof Candy McCabe (University of the West of England)
• Dr Rebecca Pearson (University of Bristol)
• Prof Tony Pickering (University of Bristol)
• Prof Tamar Pincus (University of Southampton)
• Prof Amanda Williams (University College London)
• Dr Anica Zeyen (Royal Holloway University of London)

Find out more about our members

Project outputs

Explore our research outputs

Project phases

Our work will involve people with pain at each stage to ensure our it is guided by the way pain affects people's lives.

Phase 1

We will start by exploring existing evidence (previous research) to identify the things that have the greatest effect on pain, and what measures and methods best reflect lived experience.

We will ask people with pain which factors are most important and test those factors in existing large datasets.

Phase 2

We will carry out new studies on a selection of psychological and social factors, explore how they contribute to pain, and observe how people live with pain.

Phase 3

We will bring all the research together and share the data and tools we develop with pain researchers.

Outputs and insight

A collection of highlighted articles, insights and outputs from this project.

How Bath mathematics research is tackling global health challenges

Research from two CRIISP researchers from the Institute of Mathematical Innovation (IMI) was highlighted in an article about the impact the University of Bath makes.

Bringing Public Voices to the Forefront

Jo Lloyd, Vice-Chair of the CRIISP Consortium Public Advisory Group, reflects on her attendance at the Vice-Chancellor’s Engage Awards 2025.

States and Transitions of chronic low and high impact pain

A research paper presenting a framework for the study of states of chronic pain and transitions between those states.