TY - JOUR T1 - NICE guideline NG193 for chronic pain: reasons to be cheerful JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 489 LP - 490 DO - 10.3399/bjgp21X717425 VL - 71 IS - 712 AU - Cathy Stannard AU - Ian Bernstein Y1 - 2021/11/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/71/712/489.abstract N2 - Publication of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline for assessment of chronic pain and management of chronic primary pain (NG193) was a watershed moment.1 The guideline received a polarised response from both people with chronic pain and clinicians. Many reports focused on, and often misinterpreted, the pharmacological recommendations in the guideline. However, we suggest that the guideline sends a hopeful message, initiating a step change in how we conceptualise and manage persistent pain while reducing harms from medical treatments.Pain is a common presentation in primary care. Between a third and a half of the adult population in the UK experience chronic pain and 14% of the population have disabling symptoms.2 Chronic pain is something that remarkable scientific advances have failed to crack. Patients and clinicians report that clinical consultations for pain are unsatisfactory. Patients describe a need for empathy and an awareness by the clinician of what life is like for them, as an individual, living with pain. They also want to be well informed, and empowered to manage their symptoms and to be partners in their care.3 They want honesty from clinicians when there is uncertainty about what to do. In parallel, primary care clinicians describe dissatisfaction with such consultations, lack of consensus … ER -