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Transition to chronic pain: opportunities for novel therapeutics

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 19, pages 383–384 (2018)Cite this article

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Although chronic pain is one of the most important medical problems facing society, there has been very limited progress in the development of novel therapies for this condition. Here, we discuss high-impact research priorities to reduce the number of people transitioning from acute to chronic intractable pain.

Despite widespread recognition of the importance of developing better interventions for chronic pain, little progress has been made. To address this unmet public-health need, the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened working groups to develop a research agenda for the Federal Pain Research Strategy. This article summarizes some of the recommendations that have been included in that report. Our working group focused on the transition from acute to chronic pain.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee of the US National Institutes of Health, who facilitated and provided financial support for meetings of the working group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

    Theodore J. Price

  2. University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Allan I. Basbaum, Jacqueline Bresnahan & Jon D. Levine

  3. National Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain Association, Logan, UT, USA

    Jan F. Chambers

  4. Laval University & CERVO Brain Research Centre, Québec, QC, Canada

    Yves De Koninck

  5. Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Robert R. Edwards & Neil Schechter

  6. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Ru-Rong Ji

  7. York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Joel Katz

  8. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Annemieke Kavelaars

  9. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Linda Porter

  10. University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Kathleen A. Sluka

  11. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Gregory W. Terman

  12. University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Tor D. Wager

  13. University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Tony L. Yaksh

  14. University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

    Robert H. Dworkin

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  1. Theodore J. Price
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  2. Allan I. Basbaum
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  12. Neil Schechter
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Theodore J. Price.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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RELATED LINKS

Federal Pain Research Strategy: https://iprcc.nih.gov/sites/default/files/iprcc/FPRS_Research_Recommendations_Final_508C.pdf

NIH policy: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-15-102.html

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Price, T.J., Basbaum, A.I., Bresnahan, J. et al. Transition to chronic pain: opportunities for novel therapeutics. Nat Rev Neurosci 19, 383–384 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-018-0012-5

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