AAPM Society Spotlight at AAN Annual Meeting
On April 8, 2025, the American Academy of Pain Medicine stepped onto the American Academy of Neurology stage for a collaborative and novel AAPM event: the AAN Society Spotlight: American Academy of Pain Medicine. This two-hour session distilled neurology-relevant pain management science from PainConnect 2025—our annual meeting—into a tailor-made format for neurologists. Our session was presented both live and online.
Speakers and the PainConnect Highlights They Shared
Rena Liz Courtney, PhD — Evidence-based Behavioral Treatments for Acute, Post-Surgical, and Chronic Pain Relief: Access is Everything
Dr. Courtney discussed the critical role of accessibility in implementing behavioral therapies for various pain conditions, emphasizing strategies to overcome barriers to care.
Sayed Emal Wahezi, MD — Spinal Cord Stimulation for Pain Management: Gray vs. White–Does it Matter
Dr. Wahezi explored the nuances of spinal cord stimulation, analyzing the implications of targeting gray versus white matter in pain modulation.
Robert Hurley, MD, PhD — Pain Medicine Journal 2024 Highlights: The Cutting Edge of Pain Science
Curated the top ten PainConnect related papers, from TRPA1 antagonists for neuropathy to real world opioid tapering metrics.
Jianguo Cheng, MD, PhD — Chemotherapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN): From Bench to Bedside
Presented interim Phase II results of a nutraceutical combination that reduced CIPN incidence by 30 %.
Kristen MacKenzie, MD — From Girls to Grandmas–Pain and Well-being Across the Lifetime
Unpacked new data on estrogen receptor distribution in dorsal root ganglia and the implications for age and sex specific analgesic dosing.
Fadel Zeidan, PhD — fMRI–The Neural Mechanism of Mindfulness-based Pain Relief
Showed live imaging evidence of mindfulness modulating the salience network within minutes.
Thank You to our moderators, Dr. Barbara Karp and Dr. Charles Argoff, our PainConnect presenters. This session represented a unique opportunity for attendees to gain interdisciplinary perspectives on pain management. By bridging the latest research with clinical practice, these presentations aimed to enhance patient care and inform future studies in both neurology and pain medicine.
