Québec Science magazine sees itself as the privileged link between the research community and the general public. Québec Science tackles all questions relating to science and technology, and takes a scientific look at the major issues of the day. In this article, the magazine takes a look at several QPRN research members, who present their views on pain, based on their specialties.
Québec Science publishes a fascinating article about pain, pain research, the patient experience and healthcare, featuring discussions with several QPRN members. Jeffrey Mogil describes pain in a scientific and accessible way. Yves de Koninck explains the involvement of the nervous system, the immune system and the microbial flora of the gut in maintaining pain in chronic pain. Although research still has a lot of work to do to improve our understanding of pain, it is modernizing its approaches, for example by distinguishing pain according to gender, and introducing new approaches such as recognizing the facial expression of rodents in pain. Anne Marie Pinard presents her experience as a pain clinic physician and talks about how others view pain, which has only been recognized as a disease in its own right by the WHO since 2022. Pending significant advances in research, Anne Marie Pinard encourages people living with pain to find new meaning in their lives, and to rely on pain self-management tools. At the same time, Richard Hovey insists that pain management care should consider the impact of pain on the person’s life as a whole, which could benefit interactions between patients and healthcare staff.
Read more with the special edition about pain from Quebec Science
