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Pain Management 2019 & Internal Medicine 2019
March 25-26, 2019
Rome, Italy
International Journal of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine
ISSN: 2471-982X
Page 20
JOINT EVENT
7
th
Edition of International Conference on
Pain Management
8
th
Edition of International Conference on
Internal Medicine &
Patient Care
&
Shared literary reading for chronic pain
Josie Billington
University of Liverpool, UK
In two pilot studies since 2014, the Centre for Research
into Reading, Literature and Society has demonstrated
alleviation of physical and psychological symptoms in
chronic pain sufferers resulting from a literary reading
intervention developed and delivered by award winning
UK national charity, The Reader. The shared reading
model is based on small groups coming together
weekly, to read fiction and poetry together aloud,
pausing to reflect on how the reading relates to their
lives. The readingmaterial ranges across genres, period
and is chosen for its intrinsic interest, not pre-selected
with a particular condition in mind. Quantitative
evidence indicated improvements in mood/pain for
up to two days following the reading group while
qualitative analysis showed a far greater range in
emotional experience and expression compared with
the control intervention (cognitive behavioural therapy)
as well as the power of the literary material to find (non-
threateningly) buried emotional pain (Billington et al,
Journal of Medical Humanities, 43:3, 155-65, 2016).
This research has resulted in the commissioning of
a reading group at the pain clinic of Royal Liverpool
University Teaching Hospital, UK, over several years.
This presentation will demonstrate the intervention
in practice via video footage collected as part of the
research in order to give firsthand experience of some
of the processes which led to our findings. In addition,
the presentation will indicate how qualitative data from
our research studies is proving critical to a follow up
neuro scientific research study on how literary reading
affects the chronic pain brain.
Biography
Josie Billington is Reader and Deputy Director of the Centre
for Research into Reading, Literature and Society (CRILS),
University of Liverpool. She has led several multi-disciplinary
research studies on the value of literary reading in relation to
depression, dementia, chronic pain and prisoner health and
has published extensively on the power of literary reading to
influence mental health and wellbeing, most recently “
Is Lit-
erature Healthy
?” She is a Member of the Research Council
UK Peer Review College and a National Teaching Fellow. Her
edited volume, “Reading andMental Health”, will be published
by Palgrave in 2020.
jbilling@liverpool.ac.ukJosie Billington, Int J Anesth Pain Med 2019, Volume 5
DOI: 10.21767/2471-982X-C1-004