Professional background

After obtaining dental (King's College London) and medical (University of Cambridge) degrees and specialist training in oral medicine, Joanna gained an MD in trigeminal neuralgia and a personal chair in facial pain. She held an academic post at the dental school at Queen Mary, London for 10 years before moving to her present post. Between 2007-2015, she developed and ran the largest award-winning UK centre for facial pain which is integrated with other disciplines across UCLH.

To ensure a high quality innovative service, the centre offers a patient-centred approach with evidence-based integrated care pathways. It is the largest UK centre for the multidisciplinary management of trigeminal neuralgia, which is enabling Joanna to set up a the Trigeminal Neuralgia Institute, a registered charity. She is also part of the team at the Pain Management Centre.

Joanna was the first non-anaesthetist to become a member of the Faculty of Pain Medicine. She has written six books, contributed chapters to 29 books, and written over 200 peer-reviewed papers, and has lectured in over 30 countries as well as lecturing nationally. She has been rated the top research expert in trigeminal neuralgia in the world.

Specialties

Research interests

  • Facial pain, especially trigeminal neuralgia
  • Principal investigator in clinical trials, other studies in trigeminal neuralgia
  • Supervises PhDs
  • Contributes to national and international guidelines on trigeminal neuralgia
  • Supervised artist-in-residence programme to look at the visual language of pain

Languages spoken

Polish

Publications

All publications can be found here

  1. Zakrzewska JM and Nurmikko T. Editors Trigeminal neuralgia and other cranial neuralgias : a practical personalised holistic approach OUP Oxford 2022 ISBN 978-0-19-887160-6 pages 272
  2. Padfield D and Zakrzewska JM Editors Encountering Pain , hearing, seeing, speaking. UCL Press London 2021 : ISBN 9781787352636 pages 444
  3. Zakrzewska ZJ, Hosseini-Ashrafi P, Hussain I, MoulderZJ, Subhash J, Tan M , Johnson ME and Zakrzewska JM Management of trigeminal neuralgia: A multi-centre case study in general practice British Journal of Pain 2023, Vol. 0(0) 1–7 DOI: 10.1177/20494637231199332
  4. Chong M.S., Bahra A., Zakrzewska J.M. Guidelines for the management of trigeminal neuralgia Cleveland Clinic J Medicine 2023 : 90 (6);355-362 https://doi.org/10.3949/ccjm.90a.22052
  5. Teshima THN, Zakrzewska JM, Potter R A systematic review of screening diagnostic tools for trigeminal neuralgia Br J Pain 2023: https://doi.org/10.1177/20494637221146854
  6. Venda Nova C , Riordain RN , Baker SR, Zakrzewska JM An international Delphi survey and consensus meeting to define the core outcome set for trigeminal neuralgia clinical trials Euro J Pain 2022 00, 1-13 DOI: 10.1002/ejp.2041
  7. Nova CV, Zakrzewska JM, Ni Riordain R, Baker SR "They Could Have Cut My Head Off and I Wouldn't Have Cared"-A Qualitative Study of Patient Experiences and the Impact of Trigeminal Neuralgia. J Oral Facial Pain Headache. 2022 ;36(3-4):189–205. doi: 10.11607/ofph.3110. Epub 2022 Nov 28. PMID: 36445910
  8. Singhota S, Tchantchaleishvili N, Wu J, Zrinzo L, Thorne L, Akram H, Zakrzewska JM Long term evaluation of a multidisciplinary trigeminal neuralgia service.J Headache Pain. 2022 Sep 3;23(1):114. doi: 10.1186/s10194-022-01489-7.
  9. Poole J, Stovell R , Holder S, Larkin M, Zakrzewska JM Evaluation of about face : A psychology and physiotherapy pain management for adults with persistent facial pain . J oral and facial pain and headache 2022: 36:21-DOI: 10.11607/ofph.2924
  10. Poole J, Mercadante V, Singhota S, Nizam K, Zakrzewska JM. Exploring patient satisfaction of a joint-consultation clinic for trigeminal neuralgia: Enabling improved decision-making Br J Pain. 2022 Apr;16(2):237-242. doi: 10.1177/20494637211045877.
  11. McMillan R, Zakrzewska J, Bahra A, Beecroft E, Besi E, Chong S, Hale A, Durham J, Etherington C, Kitchen N, Lloyd T, Maidment Y, Phillips N, Praveen P, Sharma M, Stamatis L, Tate A, Thorne L 2021 Guidelines for the management of trigeminal neuralgia https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/dental-faculties/fds/publications-guidelines/clinical-guidelines/
  12. Patel,K , Godazandeh K, Wu J & Zakrzewska JM The journeys of patients with trigeminal neuralgia on a background of multiple sclerosis Pain Management 2021 : doi. 10.2217/pmt-2021-0001C
  13. Lambru, G , Zakrzewska, J, Matharu, M. Trigeminal neuralgia: a practical guide Practical neurology 2021; .doi.org/10.1136/practneurol-2020-002782
  14. Venda Nova C., Zakrzewska JM, Baker SR, Ni Riordain R Patient reported outcome measures in trigeminal neuralgia –A systematic review of psychometric performance Eurp J Pain 2021: DOI: 10.1002/ejp.1779
  15. Daniel HC, Poole JJ, Klein H, Huang C, Zakrzewska JM Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Patients with Trigeminal Neuralgia: A Feasibility Study J Oral Facial Pain Headache . 2021 Winter;35(1):30-34. doi: 10.11607/ofph.2664