Will there ever be a cure for chronic pain?
It can feel like torture, destroy your life and cause you to doubt your own sanity. Sophie Elmhirst scans the horizon for a solution

By Sophie Elmhirst
Peter McNaughton, a professor of pharmacology at King’s College London, is a devoted optimist. He acknowledges that his positivity can sometimes seem irrational, but he also knows that without it he wouldn’t have achieved all that he has. And what he’s achieved is quite possibly monumental. After decades of research into the cellular basis of chronic pain, McNaughton believes he has discovered the fundamentals of a drug that might eradicate it. If he’s right, he could transform millions, even billions, of lives. What more could anyone hope for than a world without pain?

1843 magazine | The great pretender: how Ahmed al-Sharaa won Syria
Syria’s new president is a chameleon. Is that enough to rule the Middle East’s most volatile country?

1843 magazine | Tyler Cowen, the man who wants to know everything
He is Silicon Valley’s favourite economist. Does his lust for knowledge have a place in the age of AI?

1843 magazine | Is Putin’s brainwashing of Ukrainians into Russians even a crime?
Occupying forces are trying to rob Ukrainians of their language, culture and identity
1843 magazine | Ukraine’s arteries: trains are the country’s lifeblood
Railways play a critical role in defending the country and bolstering morale
1843 magazine | Why are so many Israeli Jews spying for Iran?
Unprecedented numbers are risking everything to help their country’s bitterest enemy
1843 magazine | The doomsday cult’s guide to taking over a country
How a fringe South Korean church convinced Fijians to embrace its business empire – and ignore its dark side