Pain management is one of the most common—and most difficult—challenges in medicine.

Effective treatment requires understanding:

• Pain physiology
• Pain pathophysiology
• Mechanistic classification
• Acute vs chronic transitions
• Pain syndromes
• Pharmacologic targets
• Patient-specific risk factors

This series is organized in a structured framework:

Physiology → Classification → Time Course → Syndromes → Drug Classes → Special Populations → Clinical Application

See: Pain Physiology

• Nociceptors
• A-delta vs C fibers
• Peripheral transduction
• Dorsal horn processing
• Substance P
• NMDA receptors
• Ascending pathways
• Descending inhibitory pathways

See: Pain Pathophysiology

• Peripheral sensitization
• Central sensitization
• Wind-up phenomenon
• Neuroimmune activation
• Reduced descending inhibition

See: Nociceptive Pain

• Somatic
• Visceral
• Inflammatory mediators

See: Neuropathic Pain

• Nerve injury or disease
• Ectopic firing
• Sodium channel dysfunction

See: Nociplastic Pain

• Central sensitization
• Altered nociception
• Amplified pain processing

See: Mixed Pain States

• Combination of mechanisms
• Common in chronic pain

See: Acute Pain

• Protective
• Tissue injury driven
• Short duration

See: Chronic Pain

• Persistent beyond normal healing
• Nervous system remodeling
• Central amplification
• Psychosocial interaction

Musculoskeletal Pain

Neuropathic Pain Syndromes

Centralized Pain Syndromes

Visceral Pain Syndromes

Pain pharmacotherapy must match mechanism. This series will cover the drugs that can be used for pain

See: Pain Pharmacotherapy

See: Special Populations in Pain Management

• Elderly
• Chronic kidney disease
• Liver disease
• Pregnancy
• History of substance use disorder

See: Case-Based Clinical Applications

• Acute injury
• Chronic low back pain
• Diabetic neuropathy
• Fibromyalgia
• High-risk opioid patient