Research & Publications

There is an active clinical research programme based at Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Institute of Child Health London and a number of collaborating hospitals and institutions. An emphasis is placed on projects which lead directly from basic scientific studies and which have the potential to directly improve clinical pain management. Current research includes investigations in the following areas of particular interest to the group:

• Pain Assessment 
• Evaluation of Hyperalgesia in Infants
• Opioid Pharmacology
• Local Anaesthesia
• Procedural Pain Management
• Postoperative Pain Management   

Recent publications 

Williams DG, Dickenson A, Fitzgerald M, Howard RF. Developmental regulation of codeine analgesia in the rat.  Anesthesiology 2004; 100:92-97

Howard RF.

Current status of pain management in children.

JAMA 2003; 290:2464-2469

Williams DG, Howard RF

Epidural analgesia in children. A survey of current opinions and practices amongst UK paediatric anaesthetists

Paediatric Anaesthesia 2003; 13: 769-776

Williams DG, Patel A, Howard RF

Pharmacogenetics of codeine metabolism in an urban population of children and it's implications for analgesic reliability. British Journal of Anaesthesia 2002; 89: 839-45

Recent published abstracts

Howard R, Mota P, Bremner L, Beggs S, Walker S, Fitzgerald M. The delayed postnatal development of spared nerve injury (SNI) induced neuropathic pain and the activation of glial proinflammatory cytokines. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, Vol 29, Program No. 696.18;2003

Smith J, Craske J, Howard RF

A prospective observational study of postoperative analgesic requirements for fundoplication.

Paediatric Anaesthesia 2002; 12: 828

Williams DG, Dickenson AH, Howard RF

Does the analgesic efficacy of codeine show genetic and developmental regulation? Abstracts of the 10th World Congress on Pain. IASP press 2002; 505-506 

Recent chapters in books

Howard RF

Pediatric Acute Pain Management. In Rowbtham D, Macintyre P. Eds Clinical Pain Management: Acute Pain. London: Arnold 2003 437-462

Fitzgerald M, Howard RF

The Neurobiologic Basis of Pediatric Pain. In Schecter NL, Berde CB, Yaster M. eds. Pain in Infants Children and Adolescents. Balitmore: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins 2003 19-42

Goldman A, Howard RF

Pain and Palliative Care. In McIntosh N, Helms P, Smyth R. eds Forfar and Arneil's Textbook of Pediatrics. London: Churchill Livingstone 2003 1821-1834