A Cause, a Cause, My Kingdom for a Cause – What to Do When You Have Chronic Pain but Can’t Find a Reason for It

1-hour webinar from the Chronic Pain Symposium 2025, presented by Dr. Samantha Lindley.
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1 hour cpd

12 months' access
to the recording

what's included...

  • 1-hour Presentation
  • Downloadable Lecture Notes
  • Multiple-choice Quiz
  • CPD Certificate

presentation overview

This talk is aimed primarily at vets but will be helpful for anyone who finds it difficult to understand why a patient can have significant pain but no clear cause that can be found. The diagnosis of chronic pain is a valid one, but identifying the cause of the pain can help guide the clinician’s approach to treatment and is obviously desirable. However, given considerations of stress, welfare, and finance, searching for that cause via every imaging modality available may not be the best use of resources or in the best interests of the patient. This presentation discusses why and when we need to look for a cause and what might explain why we don’t find anything conclusive when we do.

meet the presenter

dr. samantha lindley

Samantha qualified from Bristol Veterinary School in 1988. In 1993 she became veterinary consultant at Dr Roger Mugford’s Animal Behaviour Centre, developing an interest in the clinical causes of behavioural problems, especially pain. She has practiced acupuncture since 1991 and now runs the Chronic Pain Service at Glasgow University Veterinary School. She lectures veterinary surgeons/students and nurses on animal behaviour and teaches chronic pain management and acupuncture to the veterinary profession.

Samantha has taught on courses run by the British Medical Acupuncture Society (BMAS, teaching acupuncture to the medical profession) since 1999. The Western Veterinary Acupuncture Group (WVAG) was founded in 2000 and has since taught more than 1500 vets and vet nurses the technique of acupuncture and its scientific background.

Since 2010, Samantha has developed and taught an accredited acupuncture and chronic pain management course (UK, Italy and South Africa). “Essentials of Western Veterinary Acupuncture”, written by Samantha and Dr Mike Cummings (Medical Director, BMAS) was published in 2006. Samantha is a contributor to the BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Behavioural Medicine 2010, BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Anaesthesia and Analgesia 2017; BSAVA Pain Management in Small Animal Practice 2019; and co-edited the BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Rehabilitation, Palliative and Supportive Care, 2010, with Penny Watson. One of her primary interests is the emotional impact of chronic pain on her patients, about which she has been talking and writing for nearly thirty years.
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