Program seeks Council approval for an initiative exploring pain in infants, children, and adolescents. Pain in infants, children, and adolescents is common, often under-recognized, inconsistently assessed or measured, and inadequately treated. Moreover, the relationship between pain and human development and any potential effects of repeated pain experiences on the development of chronic pain and/or physical dependency remain largely understudied.
Both the CDC and the Institute of Medicine define acute pain as a physiologic response to noxious stimuli that can become pathologic and is of sudden onset and time limited (defined…as having a duration of <1 month). It is usually clearly linked to a specific event, injury, illness, or intervention. The CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain – United States, 2022 only provides recommendations for adults over the age of 18 years. No adequate corollary exists for acute pain in pediatric patients. Few updated guidelines related to acute pain in specific pediatric populations exist, mainly due to a lack of rigorous, generalizable, reliable, and validated data to inform evidence-based practice guidelines.
The overall goal of this program is to support clinical trials and a coordinating center that seek to establish or implement systematic and/or multimodal approaches for the diagnosis, assessment, and adequate treatment of acute pain for pediatric patients across the continuum of care (including outpatient care, emergency departments, intensive care units, and acute care/hospital facilities).
This initiative aligns with Theme 4 of the NICHD Strategic Plan to Improve Child and Adolescent Health and the Transition to Adulthood and Theme 5 Advancing Safe and Effective Therapeutics and Devices for Pregnant and Lactating Women, Children, and People with Disabilities.
This aligns with the Pediatric Trauma and Critical Illness Branch (PTCIB) priority of research that optimizes recovery for children who experience critical illness and/or traumatic injury and the Obstetric and Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics Branch (OPPTB) branch priority of research to quantitatively understand differences in drug action and related pathophysiology between childhood and adult disease and conditions unique to pediatrics.
Program Contact
Perdita Taylor-Zapata
Obstetric & Pediatric Pharmacology & Therapeutics Branch (OPPTB)
Tammy Jenkins
Pediatric Trauma & Critical Illness Branch (PTCIB)
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