Pain is a major public health issue throughout the world and represents a major clinical,
social, and economic problem (1). The clinical, social, and economic costs of chronic
pain in added health care costs, lost productivity, and lost income are significant,
and if prolonged, it can cause distress, anxiety, and suffering. The burden that pain
can place on individuals and the huge costs that society must bear as a result clearly
indicate the need for collective thinking through a decision-making process (2). Acute
pain is a major challenge worldwide, and chronic pain poses a massive disease burden,
affecting an estimated 20% of adults, rising to 50% of the older population. In addition,
cancer-related pain affects 70% of the 10 million cancer patients who are diagnosed
annually, which is expected to double by 2020 (3).
On October 11, 2004, the Global Day Against Pain, access to pain relief was promoted
as an essential human right by the IASP, WHO, and European Federation of IASP Chapters
(EFIC) (4, 5). Human rights refer to the concept of a universal right, regardless
of legal jurisdiction or other localizing factors, such as ethnicity, nationality,
and sex. The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights conceptualizes human rights
as based on inherent human dignity (3). Documents that were released at that time
demonstrated that pain control has been a neglected area of governmental concern (6).
There is a large and widening gap between the increasingly sophisticated knowledge
of pain and its treatment and the effective application of that knowledge (7). Although
the incidence of pain in developing countries is higher and cost-effective methods
for pain care are available, acute and chronic pain is undertreated, and timely access
to care is a growing problem in nations with access to the best health care (2, 8).
Acute and chronic pain are often poorly managed for a wide variety of cultural, political,
attitude-related, educational, and logistical reasons (8). Under treatment of pain
is a poor medical practice that results in many adverse effects (7). Improvements
in clinical pain care have not matched advances in scientific knowledge, and innovations
in medical education on pain are needed. Several lines of evidence indicate that pain
education needs to address the affective and cognitive dimensions of pain (9).
The practice of pain medicine is affected by many market forces, including industry
relationships with pain providers, lawmakers, and insurance companies; direct to consumer
advertising; insurance reimbursement patterns; and competition among health care systems
and pain management providers (10). These economic factors can encourage innovation
and efficiency and may increase access to pain treatment.
The Board of Directors of the American Board of Pain Medicine defined the specialty
of pain medicine as follows: “the specialty of pain medicine is concerned with the
prevention, evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of painful disorders”.
Interventional pain management is defined officially by National Uniform Claim Committee
(NUCC) as “the discipline of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of pain
and related disorders by the application of interventional techniques in managing
subacute, chronic, persistent, and intractable pain, independently or in conjunction
with other modalities of treatments”(11).
Whereas anesthesiologists constitute the majority of physicians who treat chronic
pain, other specialties, including psychiatry, physical medicine and rehabilitation,
neurology, neurosurgery, and primary care (not mutually exclusive), are also heavily
involved with chronic pain management. Development of pain medicine as a separate
specialty does not prevent other specialties from managing pain syndromes or developing
a multidisciplinary approach to pain management. The benefit of pain management by
other disciplines is the appropriate and timely referral of these patients to pain
specialists, which ultimately may be helpful to the patient (11). True pain practitioners
stand ready, able, and willing to perform a comprehensive assessment, guide complex
diagnostic evaluation, and offer a broad range of treatment options to patients with
chronic and cancer-related pain. The growing tendency among Iranian anesthesiologists
toward regional anesthesia and pain medicine in recent years spurred the establishment
of the Iranian Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ISRAPM) in November
2006 improve and support scientific and educational activities in this field, with
the following goals:
To standardize the indications, approaches, and techniques for regional anesthesia
and pain interventions
To maximize the exposure, education, and training of pain fellows
To advance patient safety, cost effectiveness, and accountability
To exchange and share new information, ideas, and innovations concerning regional
anesthesia and pain management
To encourage basic science as well as clinical outcome research in this field
To promote information on regional anesthesia and pain procedures
To preserve coverage for regional anesthesia and interventional pain management
To encourage specialization and research in these areas
To encourage the teaching of regional anesthesia and interventional pain procedures
in all anesthesiology training programs
Since 2006, ISRAPM stepped toward relieving pain by training pain medicine fellowships
and conducting annual international ISRAPM seminars in interventional pain management.
Considering the progressive interest in research projects on pain medicine, the lack
of scientific journals that cover and share creative and innovative materials and
articles was highlighted specially in Middle East and Asia. With the aim of disseminating
updates on pain medicine and interventional pain, ISRAPM has published “Anesthesiology
and Pain Medicine” since the summer of 2011.
Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine is the official Journal of ISRAPM, covering clinical
and basic research, education, patient care, health economics, and policy to inform
all practitioners in pain management, such as anesthesiologists, interventional pain
physicians, neurosurgeons, neurologists, and any specialists who are interested in
pain medicine (12). The 4th national and 2nd International ISRAPM Congress will be
held on October 28–30, 2011 in Tehran, Iran. Noting the requirement of wider sources
of exchanging information, sharing data, and networking among researchers, ISRAPM
aims to bolster networking between pain physicians and those who care about pain by
holding workshops and speeches on interventional pain management and cutting-edge
research locally, nationally, and internationally.
On behalf of scientific and organizing committees, we are honored to invite you to
join the ISRAPM Congress 2011: Interventional Pain Medicine, This meeting will address
many of the issues facing us as medical practitioners who treat patients with various
types of pain. Aspects of pain that will be addressed include neuropathic pain, back
pain, cancer pain, palliative care, and acute pain management. Attention will be given
to both the theory and practice of modern interventional pain treatment. The meeting
will include lectures, workshops, and face to face “meet the expert” sessions. We
hope to provide all our colleagues and friends with the opportunity to encounter new
findings and technologies. We sincerely anticipate making the congress as a meeting
point where all our colleagues and friends gather and exchange their latest knowledge
and experiences in their fields.