The European Pain Federation EFIC is made up of Chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). Its Health Care Professionals look after a population of over 740 million people in its 37 member countries. European Pain Management provides a review of the organization and delivery of pain care in the 37 European countries. Leaders in the field of pain management from each country offer a chapter on how their health and pain care services are organized, the demands of their specific populations, the specific national challenges they face, and examples of innovations and advances. After this comprehensive summary, key experts in the field discuss issues that are pertinent to all the European nations; ranging from working with young people to managing opioids, and the rise of pain as a specialism. The final chapter pulls together themes from across the entire book, making a call to envision a new form of pain management for a new Europe. European Pain Management provides an authoritative summary, description, and discussion of the challenges and opportunities for improving the care of people living in pain.

Primary sensory neurons respond to peripheral stimulation and project to the spinal cord. Specifically, the population of neurons which respond to damaging stimuli terminate in the superficial layers of the dorsal horn. Therefore, the dorsal horns constitute the first relay site for nociceptive fibre terminals which make synaptic contacts with second order neurons. It has recently become clear that the strength of this first pain synapse is plastic and modifiable by several modulators, including neuronal and non-neuronal regulators, and studies on the fundamental processes regulating the plasticity of the first pain synapse have resulted in the identification of new targets for the treatment of chronic pain. This book will be of interest to a wide readership in the pain field.