What resources it currently makes available for research into chronic pain and its alleviation.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Executive Health Department is currently funding six research projects on chronic pain to the total value of £417,000. It has funded 11 other studies on chronic pain, which have been completed within the last four years.CSO is also providing funding of £351,000 towards a UK-wide five-year programme of research, looking at the history of chronic pain in the community and exploring the effectiveness of treatment for chronic pain within general practice and community based settings.More generally, CSO is aware of 2,291 ongoing or recently completed projects in the UK on pain in general (acute and chronic), 225 of which are in Scotland (including the six CSO-funded studies mentioned above). Details of all these projects are available from the National Research Register, a copy of which is in the Parliament's Reference Centre.The results of the research projects undertaken throughout the UK will inform the future direction of research and treatment of pain.