Sam Eldabe News Today

Nearly a third of patients on treatment programme were able to come off opioids entirely within a year

Researchers at the University of Warwick and The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough have led a clinical trial, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), on a new treatment which can help people stop needing to use opioid painkillers to manage chronic pain.

Broadcaster Kirsty Young, 53, (pictured) was so badly affected by fibromyalgia that she recently admitted she left her job presenting Radio 4s Desert Island Discs in 2019 because of it.

A revolutionary single-shot jab that delivers DNA to cells could be a new way to tackle all types of chronic pain. The injection, which is now in clinical trials for conditions including osteoarthritis (wear and tear damage that means bones rub together), instructs cells to ramp up production of a key natural protein, IL-10, which has painkilling and anti-inflammatory properties. Chronic pain — where the pain lasts longer than 12 weeks despite treatment — affects around one in five adults. ...