Conference "Chronic Pain - Crossed Views" : The Toulouse public came in numbers 

On Thursday, October 17, 2019, the ANALGESIA Institute organized, for the first time in Toulouse, a conference on chronic pain.This evening was the highlight of a partnership conducted throughout 2019 with the DoCTAM* group, composed of students from a Specialized Master's Degree in Health Marketing at Toulouse Business School.

Almost 100 people participated in to this event where chronic pain was widely discussed. 

At first, Dr. Julie Dupouy, general practitioner, reviewed the definition of chronic pain and introduced some scales for assessing pain. She then underlined that careful listening to the chronically painful patient was essential in the diagnostic process: "the patient-general practitioner relationship must be based on trust". 

Nathalie Cantagrel, anaesthetist and head of the pain centre at Toulouse University Hospital, spoke about the Chronic Pain Structure management process. "Pain is a complex phenomenon, patient care must be multidisciplinary. Physiotherapist, social worker, pain doctor, psychologist must work together for each patient," she said. 

Professor Nicolas Authier, member of the ANALGESIA Institute and moderator of the evening, carried out two focuses: one on the opioid crisis and the other one on the eDOL project.  

At the end of the event, Carole Robert, President of the Fibromyalgia France association, reminded the audience of the importance of therapeutic patient education (TPE): "It allows us to work on knowledge, in terms of knowledge and know-how, of the disease, treatment, resource management and health behaviours. It is important for the painful patient to understand that he must be an active participant in his care in order to improve and regain a satisfactory quality of life.

It was with these positive and hopeful words that the conference ended. A question and answer session was then organised with the participants. Many thanks to all those present and to the speakers for their participation! 

Thank you to the DoCTAM students for the quality of their work and their investment. The exchanges were of a high quality. 

We would also like to thank all the partners of this conference: the association Fibromyalgie France, the CHU of Toulouse, l'Observatoire Français des Médicaments Antalgiques, and the Toulouse Business School for their hospitality. 

* The DoCTAM students (for Chronic Pain - Alternative and Medicinal Therapies) wanted to work on chronic pain throughout the year, and to do so, they approached the ANALGESIA Institute to set up joint actions on this subject, which is still not well known and yet a real scourge in our society.