Science, Medicine and Societal Effects of Pain (KISC)

4 units

The prevalence of pain, the negative consequences of untreated pain, disparities in access to pain treatment, and the potential for misuse and abuse of commonly-prescribed analgesics makes pain management a critical public health challenge. This KISC introduces students to the neuroscience, sociology, and psychology of pain. Students will learn about the neurocircuitry of pain perception, modulation, and related psychological phenomena. They will understand fundamental basic science behind preclinical pain research and begin to be able to interpret these types of studies. They will investigate how social determinants of health affect pain. Students will apply these neuroscience principles and their understanding of social determinants of health into the practice of pain medicine, and learn how to assess, measure, examine, and treat patients with various pain conditions. Students will consolidate these aspects of pain medicine into a multidimensional biopsychosocial model. This course uses a variety of instructional methods including didactics, case-based discussions, clinical care of patients in and out of the hospital settings, self-learning through research, reflective project completion, laboratory discovery, and scientific journal club presentation. This course is designed to more properly prepare future physicians to tackle the important public health challenge that improper pain management presents.