Deprescribing in Pain and Mental Health: An Interdisciplinary Conversation

Recent years have seen a range of actors and institution begin to question the relative risks and benefits of a range of medications, such as opioid painkillers and antidepressants, leading many prescribers to rethink their reliance on these compounds.This interdisciplinary conversation will bring together a group of health practitioners, researchers, and activists to discuss the practical, ethical, social, and political aspects of deprescribing, with a focus on chronic pain and mental health.The conversation will present efforts made by St. Anthony's Health Centre, a GP Practice in the East End of Newcastle upon Tyne, to reduce their prescribing in these areas. It will also include health researchers and activists, who will present a wider view on the same topic.

The event will focus in particular on how deprescribing intersects with existing and emergent health inequalities, and will be of interest to anyone working at the intersection of drugs, clinical practice, society, pain, mental health, and addiction.

Speakers will include

Jonathan Coates (GP at St. Anthony's Health Centre and Clinical Fellow at the Institute for Medical Humanities)

Stefan Ecks (Anthropologist, University of Edinburgh)

Nick Hartley (Clinical Psychologist, St. Anthony's Health Centre)

Neil Heffernan (Pharmacist, St. Anthony's Pharmacy)

Shayla Sue Schlossenberg (Head of the Drugs Service at Release and In-Practice Research Fellow at the Institute for Medical Humanities)

Matt Williams (Psychological Welfare Practitioner, St Anthony's Health Centre)

Please note that this event is free to attend.

This workshop is organised by The Practice Site of the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities.