Recent Discoveries in Peripheral and Central Mechanisms of Pain

Pain is the most common reason that a patient will seek medical help, yet the underlying mechanisms that produce both acute and chronic pain are poorly understood. In many pain states, particularly those where there is no precipitating injury (e.g. migraine and fibromyalgia), the underlying mechanisms remain among the least well understood. Moreover, there is great need for treatments and approaches that can inhibit pain associated with injury or disease, something that can only come about from a better understanding of the processes underlying the perception, modulation, and chronification of pain.

The goal of this Research Topic is to highlight new and state-of-the-art approaches to elucidate the underlying cellular mechanisms, both peripheral and central, that promote acute pain. Moreover, how these processes are altered after injury, or in a disease state, to lead to a heightened percept of pain will be a point of emphasis. An additional goal will be to solicit studies examining non-traditional models of pain pathology associated with injury and disease, such as those of migraine, fibromyalgia, corneal/ocular, dental, cancer, or ischemic muscle pain. Of special interest are discoveries using models where pain occurs in the absence of injury, for example with chronic stress or chronic drug (e.g. opiate) exposure.

As a whole, the overarching goal for this Research Topic is to go beyond traditional approaches used in investigating pain to novel models that may better typify pathological states that affect so many patients suffering from acute and chronic pain.