Notes from membership

Abstract

policy. I can highlight only a few of the symposia here to stimulate your gustatory senses (not to mention the famed New Orleans cuisine). As a buffet awaits you, you will have to select from extensive offerings-including topics such as costeffectiveness of pain treatments, advances in understanding and treating neuropathic pain, oxidative stress, the role of attention in pain perception, placebos in pain treatment and research, the economics of postoperative pain, cannabinoids, grant writing, future directions in pain treatment and research, ethical issues in pain management, pain and depression, and more, much more. For those who like a little more spice, may I suggest another session that will focus on the controversy of regional pain and fibromyalgia (guaranteed not to cause dyspepsia). I also draw your attention to a particularly enticing beignet (an indescribable confection indigenous to New Orleans): a session that will focus on how pain is depicted in the movies. A broader sampling for connoisseurs to round out the menu will offer approximately 300 posters presenting timely research. A new feature this year offers sets of posters clustered around various themes, designated citatiqn papers, and the authors will have an opportunity to summarize their findings during breakoutsessions. The program is organized so that during each available time slot there will be sessions targeting basic science, clinical science, clinical practice, and policy. In addition, many sessions will have considerable overlap with these general areas because they are truly the hallmarks of pain management. I am confident that when you attend the meeting, you will agree that the goals underlying the theme of this year's meeting have been achieved. You should leave the meeting with a sense of the dynamism in the field and practical tools that will be useful in your work: clinical practice, clinical research, or basic science. You will probably also leave with more physical and intellectual heft than you had when you arrived. So mark your calendars now: a true professional banquet awaits you in New Orleans!