THE MOLECULAR ROOTS OF PAIN

Abstract

There's an enormous need for us to know more about how to treat pain, said Kathleen M. Foley, a professor of neurology, neuroscience, and clinical pharmacology at Cornell University Medical School, New York City. Patients that I see with neuropathic pain, patients that I see with inflammatory pain—we don't have the best treatments. We have good treatments, but they are not enough. Foley, who is director of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Center for Cancer Pain Research & Education, addressed a symposium on new directions in pain research held late last month at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. Organized by a consortium of institutes and offices at NIH, the symposium brought together clinicians and scientists to share their knowledge in the interest of advancing pain research. In all, 350 people attended. Neuropathic pain, which is characterized by a spontaneous, burning pain, is caused by injury to a nerve, but it ...