Primer on Pain

Pain is a common complaint and one of the most frequent reasons people seek healthcare.    The person training to be a clinician or the practicing clinician can grow frustrated with management of pain because traditional instruction falls short on providing an adequate understanding of pain.  The overall goal of this primer is to supplement traditional instruction by providing content that allows the individual that completes this primer to gain a “transformed understanding” of pain consistent with Institute of Medicine guidelines.  Primer content will emphasize examples in musculoskeletal pain from selected studies reported in the peer-review literature.  Musculoskeletal pain was selected as the core of this primer because of its overall prevalence and high societal impact.