Scope

For clinicians treating the human or non-human patient, the three prime directives are: “Primare non nocere”; “Pathologiae curandae” and “Tractare dolor”. The strides made in our understanding of pain processing have pointed to a myriad of targets to manage encoding of the pain state. This specification of therapeutic targets reflects not only signaling cascades, but the neuronal and nonneuronal cell systems with which those signaling cascades are associated and then the peripheral and neuraxial systems with which those cell systems are associated. Our appreciation of the respective contributions of the peripheral afferent terminal, the dorsal root ganglion, spinal dorsal horn, brainstem and supraspinal structures, point to drug targeting by topical, intranasal, systemic and to spatially restricted sites inside  (parenchymal, intraventricular  and intrathecal) and outside the blood brain barrier (ganglionic, perineural  and intra-articular). The Frontiers journal collection for which I am responsible is the pharmacological treatment of pain.  This perspective reflects the highly ramified focus of the content in this journal division. It emphasizes that in the end, it is the effects of the interventions on the pain behavior of the organism (both clinical and preclinical) that is the pivotal component of this content. We emphasize that the focus of pain research is to improve ability of physicians and veterinarians to address pain states defining the quality of life of their patients. Accordingly, we solicit and entertain reviews and rigorously performed original research reflecting, but not limited to the following themes:

·       Pharmacology of interventions that alter acute and chronic pain behaviors observed after acute stimulation, inflammation and in mono and poly neuropathic nerve injuries secondary to physical, chemical or immune insults  

·       Assessment of therapeutic ratios for interventions altering pain behaviors to assess intervention specificity.  

·       Define effects of analgesic targets on pain thresholds and upon the aversive components of pain state and on emitted vs evoked behaviors in pain models. 

·       Characterization and implementation of experimental models assessing nociceptive processing and effects of therapeutic interventions with a focus on specificity, power and precision to promote the 3 Rs of animal research (refine, reduce and replace).

·       These guidelines emphasize contributions broadly based on small animals, large animals (including those designated as companion animals) and humans.

We (the Specialty Chief and Associate Editors) see this as an important charge, to participate in the advance of science and medicine to promote at all levels the development of insight into pain and its management in human and non-human patients.

Submission

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