Professional background

I am a consultant in pain medicine and anaesthesia at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and UCLH.

I completed my training in anaesthesia rotating between the King’s College London, University College London, Chase Farm and Barnet and the Royal Free Hospitals. My Advanced Pain Medicine fellowship was based at the Imperial School, London and I held appointments at Chelsea and Westminster, Hillingdon and The Royal Marsden Hospitals. I went further supplementing my sub-specialty pain training with attachments to Guys’ and St Thomas’ hospitals (advanced neuromodulation) and Cleveland Clinic, OH, USA (interventional management of headaches) before taking up my current permanent post as a consultant.

My clinical activities are centered around the multidisciplinary management of acute, chronic and cancer pain.

I have the following clinical interests:

  • interventional cancer pain management
  • urogenital / pelvic / abdominal chronic pain
  • rare inherited pain conditions such as erythromelalgia, CIPA and Paroxysmal extreme pain disorder
  • central pain syndromes
  • neuropathic pain
  • intraoperative anaesthetic management of complex patients with the aim of preventing development of persistent postoperative pain (PPP)
  • pain originating in the back, spine and neck
  • other chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain disorders

Research interests

I obtained my Ph.D. in Neurosciences (Pain) in 2012 from Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London.

My research currently centres on mechanisms of neuronal hyperexcitability in patients affected by complex chronic pain disorders.

My research interests are:

  • pain channelopathies
  • painful peripheral neuropathies
  • genetics of chronic pain
  • personalised analgesia
  • ketamine as an analgesic drug

Evolving areas: use of DNA in treatment of chronic pain

Publications

Original articles under review (last update May 2014):
1. Roman Cregg, Robert Werdehausen, James Cox, David Bennett, John Wood. Mexiletine induces a pronounced phasic block and modulates pathological channel gating of the L858F Nav1.7 channel mutation towards physiological properties. British Journal of Pharmacology. Under second revision.

Peer-reviewed articles in journals:
* - corresponding author; reference format – journal-specific
2. Cregg R, Laguda B, Werdehausen R, Cox JJ, Linley JE, Ramirez JD, Bodi I, Markiewicz M, Howell KJ, Chen YC, Agnew K, Houlden H, Lunn MP, Bennett DL, Wood JN, Kinali M. Novel Mutations Mapping to the Fourth Sodium Channel Domain of Nav1.7 Result in Variable Clinical Manifestations of Primary Erythromelalgia. Neuromolecular Med. 2013 Jan 6: 265-278.
3. Simon Evans, Basil Almahdi, Brigitta Brandner, Imrat Sohanpal, Pervez Sultan, Roman Cregg and Bruno Averbeck. Performance on a probabilistic inference task in healthy subjects receiving ketamine compared to patients with schizophrenia, J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2012 Mar 2 Epub PMID: 22389244.
4. Pervez Sultan, Brendan Carvalho, Bernd Oliver Rose, Roman Cregg*. Should Endotracheal Tube Cuff Pressure Be Monitored Routinely? A review of the evidence. Journal of the Association of Perioperative Practice Volume 21/Issue 11, November 2011: 379-386.
5. Y.L.Kuchin, M.M.Pylypenko, Y.I.Nalapko, R.Cregg. Local anaesthetics: mechanism of action, toxic re¬actions and its prevention. J Emergency Medicine, Vol12, No 2, 2011: 125-173 (In Ukrainian).
6. Cregg, R. Neurobiology of human pain – peripheral and central pathways. Journal of Emergencies in Medical Practice 2010 [Suppl. No 3]:15(A-13).
7. Rose BO, Kyle B, Koshy-Delaffon A, Cregg R*.  Endotracheal tube cuff pressures are too high during anaesthesia. European Journal of Anaesthesiology 2009;26[Suppl45]:26(3AP1-1).
8. Stefanovic Ana, MSc, Brandner Brigitta, MBBS FRCA, Klaassen Elissa, MSc, Cregg Roman, MBBS FRCA, Nagaratnam Mayavaty, MBBS FRCA, Bromley M. Lesley, MBBS FRCA, Das K. Ravi, BSc, Rossell L. Susan, PhD, Morgan Celia, PhD and Curran H. Valerie, PhD, DClinPsy., Acute and Chronic Effects of Ketamine on Semantic Priming: Modelling Schizophrenia?, J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2009 Apr;29(2):124-33. 
9. Stefanovic A, Brandner B, Klaassen E, Cregg R, Nagaratnam M, Bromley LM, Das RK, Rossell SL, Morgan CJ, Curran HV. Acute and chronic Effects of Ketamine: Modelling Schizophrenia? J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2009 Apr;29(2):124-33.
10. Dr Roman Cregg*, Dr Thippa Raghuraman, Dr David Green, Dr Jeremy Windsor. Thyroid surgery: what are the options for anaesthesia?, British Journal of Hospital Medicine, Vol. 69, Iss. 7, 09 Jul 2008, pp 424.
11. C. Bagot, R. Cregg, A. Shariff, R Patel, R. Arya. A Case of Perioperative Myocardial Infarction in a Patient Receiving Low Dose Prothrombin Complex Concentrates, Thromb Haemost 2007; 98: 1141–1142.
12. Cregg R., Krystopchyck S., Lipoprotein Profile of Patients After Acute Myocardial Infarction, Lviv Acta Medica  Leopoliensa 1997;05, 68.
13. Krystopchyck S., Cregg R* Silent Myocardial Ischaemia in Patients with Uncomplicated Q-wave MI, Lviv Acta Medica Leopoliensa 1997;05, 69.
Review Articles
14. Roman Cregg, Giovanna Russo, Anthony Gubbay, Ruth Branford, Hiroe Sato. Pharmacogenetics of analgesics, British Journal of Pain, Nature and nurture Special Issue, November 2013, 7(4): 189-208.
15. Roman Cregg, Anwar Sibtain, Paul Farquhar-Smith. Persistent Postoperative Pain. Current Opinion in Supportive & Palliative Care. 2013 Jun; 7(2): 144-52.
16. Eijkelkamp N, Linley JE, Baker MD, Minett MS, Cregg R, Werdehausen R, Rugiero F, Wood JN. Neurological perspectives on voltage-gated sodium channels. Brain. 2012 Sep;135(Pt 9):2585-612.
17. Cregg, R., Momin, A., Rugiero, F., Wood, J. N., & Zhao, J. (2010). Pain channelopathies. J Physiol, 588(Pt 11): 1897-1904.
Books / Chapters
18. Cregg R*: 5.56.14 - Local Anaesthetic toxicity. In: Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, M. Pylypenko M, Shlapak I, ed., Kyiv, Commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Ukraine. In print.
19. Cregg R, Kobelyatski Y: 2.3 – Physiology of Pain. In: Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, M. Pylypenko M, Shlapak I, ed., Kyiv, Commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Ukraine. In print.
20. Cregg R, Pylypenko M, Chepkij L: 5.29 - Neuroanaesthesia. In: Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, M. Pylypenko M, Shlapak I, ed., Kyiv, Commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Ukraine. In print.
21. Chong S, Cregg R, Souter A: Oxford Pain Management Library – Back Pain. Oxford University Press. 2012
a. Sibtain N, Cregg R, Purves, A: Chapter 4 – Investigations of patients with back pain. In: Chong S, Cregg R, Souter A: Oxford Pain Management Library – Back Pain. Oxford University Press. 2012
b. Cregg R, Souter A: Chapter 15 – Overview of back pain and its future management: current guidelines, controversies and future directions. In: Chong S, Cregg R, Souter A: Oxford Pain Management Library – Back Pain. Oxford University Press. 2012
Published Abstracts / Posters / Other Printed Material
22. Cregg, R. Molecular mechanisms of pain (Doctoral dissertation). University College London, 2012: pp1-309.
23. F. Morell-Ducos, B. Almahdi, P. Sultan, I. Sohanpal, S. Evans, B. Averbeck, R. Cregg, B Brandner. Predictive performance of a modified Clements 250 pharmacokinetic model during low-dose target-controlled ketamine infusions at two concentrations. Poster presentation at the European Society of Intravenous Anaesthesia Annual Conference; Amsterdam, Netherlands; 10th June 2011.
24. Patel BV and Cregg R*. Insights from a Clinical Academic Training Forum in Perioperative Medicine. Royal College of Anaesthetists Bulletin, November 2010.
25. B Almahdi, R Cregg, A Absalom,V Curran, C Morgan, C Larsen, A Stefanovic, B Brandner. The performance of a modified Clements 250 Pharmacokinetic Model with low dose target-controlled infusions at two concentrations. Poster presentation on the 2nd World Congress of Total Intravenous anaesthesia, Berlin, 2009.
26.  Klaassen E, Morgan CJA, Cregg R, Nagaratnam M, Brandner B, Curran HV. The role of dopamine and glutamate in superstition: an investigation using ketamine. 20th Congress of the European-College-of-Neuropsychopharmacology, Vienna, AUSTRIA, 13 Oct 2007 - 17 Oct 2007. EUROPEAN NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY. ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. 17: S420-S420. Oct 2007.