The Development of Pain Medicine in Italy and the Rest of Europe 40 Years After The First International Association for the Study of Pain Congress

Abstract

Professor Giustino Varrassi and Antonella Paladini speak to Jade Parker, Commissioning Editor: Professor Giustino Varrassi is Full Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine in the LUdeS University, Valletta, Malta. He graduated at the Medical School of the University ‘La Sapienza’ (Rome, Italy) in 1973, and became board certified in Anesthesiology and Intensive Care in 1976 and in Pneumology in 1978, both in the same Medical School. He is currently President of the European League Against Pain and of the Paolo Procacci Foundation, and is a founding member of both of these. He is also a member of the World Institute of Pain, and a member of the Board of the Associazione Italiana per lo Studio del Dolore. He has been an invited speaker at more than 500 congresses (national and international), mainly in obstetric anesthesia and pain medicine. He is also the author of approximately 500 papers, published in international and national scientific journals, and 46 book chapters, mainly on obstetric anesthesia and pain medicine. He is the editor of 31 books and congress proceedings, including a textbook on obstetric anesthesia. He has also been the organizer of around 40 congresses, including European and World congresses on Pain Medicine.

Professor Antonella Paladini is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the L’Aquila University, Italy. She has recently been nominated as Associate Professor of Anesthesiology in the LUdeS University, in Valletta, Malta. She graduated in medicine at L’Aquila University in 1989, and has got her Board Certification with laude in Anesthesia in 1992 and served as anesthetist in few teaching hospitals, mainly in cardiac surgery departments. Since 2000, she is in charge of the L’Aquila University, and has addressed her interests toward pain medicine. In 2004, she got the Board Certificate in Pain Medicine, with laude, in the University of Verona. She has a huge scientific production, with over 60 papers published in international and national journals. She is especially interested in the phenomenon of neuroinflammation and pain, and has published interesting review articles and meta-analysis on the topic. She has also co-authored few chapters of international books.

KEYWORDS:

• conference
• European League Against Pain
• pain management

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the views of Future Medicine Ltd.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

G Varrassi and A Paladini have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.