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What the Brain Institute Means to Me

Perry G. Fine, MD Professor of Anesthesiology Pain Research Center Brain Institute Member The University of Utah

Chronic pain seriously impacts functional abilities, cognitive capacity, and emotional well-being. Although potentially devastating for all those suffering from chronic pain, these effects are often most dramatically seen in the most vulnerable patients: those with advanced age and advanced chronic illness.

Sad but true, there is equally strong evidence that pain is poorly assessed and treated in older patients and those with far-advanced “terminal” illness in most medical and healthcare arenas. (A notable exception is hospice and palliative care programs where comfort—including pain control—is an imperative.)

While there are many reasons for under-treatment of pain in these patient populations, an important one is that neuropathic pain disorders (pain due to injury, inflammation or disease involving nervous system structures) and degenerative conditions are more prevalent and often resistant to conventional therapies. Another is that there is considerable, and often warranted, fear of doing more harm than good with the usual analgesic therapies.

All of these issues point out the need for research into mechanisms of chronic
pain, the effects of unremitting pain on the brain, and better ways of preventing, evaluating, and treating pain to improve patients’ quality of life and prevent
premature death.

It has been a great passion of mine to advocate for pain research, improved
treatment approaches and access to high-quality pain care during the quarter of a century I’ve been on the faculty at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Now, and into the foreseeable future, as the demographics of Utah and the U.S. as a whole shift rapidly toward a greater proportion of older individuals and greater numbers of people living with one or more pain-producing chronic conditions, greater focus is needed in all these areas. The interdisciplinary structure of the Brain Institute is perfectly positioned to make important advances to prevent and reduce the devastating consequences of chronic pain, and I am delighted to become involved in this growing network of committed clinicians and researchers.

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