The origin of pain researchers

Evening bonfire at NAPS. Photo credit: Biafra Ahanonu.

Why pain?

Or more specifically, why pain research?

It might seem that everyone’s route to pain research is due to the lofty goal of discovering cures and treating patients. But in conversations with several participants at the North American Pain School (NAPS), it is clear that is not always the case and that there are many routes to pain (research!).

There are many examples. One person, applying for graduate school, had a list of professors they wanted as mentors, sent letters of interest via mail (yes, snail mail!), and it so happens one of them did pain research. That led to a lifelong career in pain. Another started off doing toxicology then transitioned to pain research. There are those with a more clinical background (physiotherapist) or experience dealing with wounded American soldiers coming back from tours abroad, which some would view as a more direct path to pain research. Still others started their career by attending a lecture given by an established researcher within the field that jumpstarted their interest in pain. Lastly, an obesity researcher switched to studying sleep, which happens to dovetail nicely with pain research due to their effects on one another. This gives a feel for the variety of routes people have taken to get into pain (research!).

During the evening workshop, Dr. Roger Fillingim started an extremely helpful discussion around mentorship (read Mentorship in Academic Medicine). This reminded me of a personal blog post I had written long ago on resources useful to graduate students (Graduate Student Resources) and how useful it is for professors to formally give resources and run workshops to get people thinking about mentorship in a more in-depth fashion. In the future, this type of workshop might also be an opportunity to talk about how future and current mentors can bring more people into the pain field, as often times mentors in fields you aren’t familiar with can spark hidden interest that turn into lifelong passions.

The first couple days of NAPS have been awesome. There have been great conversations ranging from the role of hype in pain research (be mindful (hint hint) of this!) to bringing a Buddhist monk or another spiritual teacher into next year’s NAPS to give their perspective on pain, and beyond. And as an American, it has been great hearing about all the different programs taking place here in Canada (e.g. Solutions for Kids in Pain [SKIP]), both within the basic research, patient, and clinical science communities. These are all more reasons to do pain research, because of the fantastic and intellectually stimulating community.

Really looking forward to the next couple of days. As always, follow updates via Twitter using #NAPainSchool!