A new multidisciplinary pain-research program is being launched by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, according to a press release from the center, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The new program will complement research being undertaken elsewhere within the NIH. Researchers participating in the program will investigate the role of the brain in pain processing and control; how factors such as emotion, attention, genetics, and the environment affect pain perception; and how chronic pain produces brain changes that can modify how the brain reacts to pain medications.Information about what psychiatrists can do to help chronic pain patients, what role opioids can play in pain relief in the psychiatric domain, and what advances in pain medicine are coming can be found in Psychiatric News here and here. In addition, to read about educating psychiatrists on use of pain medications, see Academic Psychiatry here. (Image: Dim Dimich/Shutterstock.com)
