The Prevention of Needless Pain: Research Opportunities

The prevention of needless pain must begin with the obvious: research aimed at eliminating the injuries and illnesses that cause pain. Others have been assigned such topics at this meeting, and I will not further address primary prevention of pain by the elimination of its inciting tissue damage. There are pain prevention issues that are in great need of innovative research, but a necessary first step must be epidemiologic studies of the incidence, natural history, and distribution of significant painful conditions within our population.