Facial Expressions of Pain: Clinical Meaning and Research Possibilities

Abstract

Amanda Williams qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1985. She joined the first residential pain management programme, INPUT, at St Thomas‘ Hospital (London, UK) at its start in 1988, running the research program, initially a large randomized controlled trial and generalization trial, and then a series of studies nested within the ongoing program. In 1996 she completed her PhD on the psychology of pain management and took a part-time academic post in the Guy‘s, King‘s & St Thomas‘ medical school (London, UK). In 2004, she moved to University College London (UK), teaching and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate psychologists, and continuing some clinical work in the long-established Pain Management Centre of the National Hospital (London, UK). For over 10 years she has been a volunteer and then a consultant at the Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture (London, UK) working clinically and developing audit and evaluation of clinical work there. She continues these strands of work and they include: evaluation of psychological methods of pain management, mainly in systematic reviews with Chris Eccleston and Stephen Morley; and understanding chronic pain from torture. She has worked extensively on facial expression of pain and its recognition by others, applying an explicitly evolutionary model. This work has led to a major grant to develop automated therapeutic feedback to people with pain, using their behavior as input. She has spoken at many national and international pain meetings, including a plenary at the World Congress of Pain in 2002; she has published over 100 papers and chapters and is on the editorial boards of several major pain journals.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

A Williams has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.