Bath doctor to investigate role of nervous system in arthritis
A Bath doctor has been awarded a one-year fellowship to investigate the role of the nervous system on the development of rheumatoid arthritis, a crippling incurable joint condition which affects around 600,000 people in the UK.
Dr Richard Haigh, a senior registrar at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, has been awarded a Clinical Research Fellowship of £51,180 by the Arthritis Research Campaign.
Dr Haigh aims to demonstrate the theory, already proven in animals, that the body has the capacity to mirror the response to a painful stimulus; for example, if a patient's left arm reacts to some kind of painful stimulus, the other arm will mirror the response. Because of this remarkable, mirror-like response, the nervous system is thought to be involved in the development and persistence of many inflammatory diseases.
"There is convincing evidence from animal studies and simple observations in man that the nervous system, and this mirroring phenomenon, is important in arthritis," explained Dr Haigh. "I want to demonstrate that this phenomenon happens in humans too."
Around 40 patients and healthy volunteers from the Bath area will take part in the study. Chilli pepper will be rubbed onto one arm, and the reaction to this sensation on the other arm will be studied.
If the phenomena of mirror imaging can be artificially reproduced, doctors could then start to intervene in the process, and block the inflammatory activity. In the long tem this could lead to new forms of drug treatment.
Bath is a leading centre for arthritis research. Scientists and doctors at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases and the University of Bath are currently in receipt of around £2m from the Arthritis Research Campaign, the fifth biggest medical research charity in the UK.
