Contemporary pain management

Pain management is a dynamic clinical area. Basic research is generating new drugs and new technologies for their delivery. Clinical research has demonstrated the important roles of psychological and environmental factors in the complaint of pain. Surgical strategies are improving. The recognition that the human brain plays a major role in pain perception and pain behaviours has led to the development of multidisciplinary teams that can bring a diversity of diagnostic and therapeutic skills to clinical medicine. The specialty of pain management is gaining momentum throughout the world. Australian health care delivery needs to respond to these developments to permit the citizens of this country to receive state-of-the-art care. Not only will this be more humane, but it will permit a reduction in the enormous financial costs of the poor management of both acute and chronic pain.