Editor’s Note

Dr Lincoln Tracy

Hello all, and welcome to another edition of the Australian Pain Society eNewsletter. It’s great to be back for another year, especially after filling in as a guest editorial writer for the British Journal of Pain in their first edition of 2022. I would once again like to thank Felicia Cox for giving me the opportunity to contribute and for not yelling at me for citing a TikTok in their high-quality journal that has been running since 2007.

Momentum is starting to build for the 2022 Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM), which will be held in a face-to-face setting in Hobart in April. I know that I have really missed being able to connect and network with friends and colleagues I have made during the time I have been involved in the Society and would encourage as many of you as possible to make the trip down and attend. However, I acknowledge that it will not be as simple to snap back to the way things were before the COVID-19 pandemic and understand there may be new and different barriers to overcome to facilitate this. I never would have thought I would need so many approvals to travel to Tasmania!

The eNewsletter features three fantastic recent publications from members, including a systematic review and meta-analysis of targeting neurotrophic factors for low back pain and sciatica. This paper features several Society members, including Rodrigo Rizzo, Aidan Cashin and Hayley Leake. In recent years many of the clinical guidelines for low back pain have moved away from recommending pharmacological interventions due to safety and efficacy concerns. As a result, there has been a push towards finding novel analgesic actions targeting different mechanisms that can be used in the management of low back pain. Anti-nerve growth factor (antiNGF) is one of the potential novel mechanisms that has been identified, but little is known about the efficacy and safety of these medications for low back pain. I won’t steal anyone’s thunder and spoil the findings for you but certainly recommend checking the paper out. Congratulations to all involved for such a high quality output.

Finally, many of you will hopefully have seen that Season Two of One Thing launched in late February. All nine new episodes featuring speakers such as Professor Chris Eccleston and Professor Kathleen Sluka are available in video and podcast format. We will be promoting one episode per week on all our socials in the lead up to the ASM. I know the whole One Thing team is very thankful to Trudy, the Board, and the rest of the Society for supporting Season Two of our initiative.

See you all in Hobart!

Lincoln

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE