January 10, 2014: ACTTION-American Pain Society Pain Taxonomy Launched and Article to Appear in Journal of Pain
ACTTION and the American Pain Society (APS) have joined together to develop an evidence-based chronic pain classification system called the ACTTION-APS Pain Taxonomy (AAPT). A manuscript describing the outcome of an ACTTION-APS consensus meeting, at which a structure for this new taxonomy of chronic pain conditions was developed, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Pain. AAPT will include the following dimensions: 1) Core Diagnostic Criteria, 2) Common Features, 3) Common Medical Comorbidities, 4) Neurobiological, Psychosocial, and Functional Consequences, and 5) Putative Neurobiological and Psychosocial Mechanisms, Risk Factors, and Protective Factors. Expert working groups are now applying this taxonomy to chronic pain conditions, thereby developing a set of diagnostic criteria that have been consistently and systematically implemented across common chronic pain conditions. It is anticipated that the availability of this evidence-based and mechanistic approach to pain classification will be of substantial benefit to chronic pain research and treatment.
Fillingim RB, Bruehl S, Dworkin RH, Dworkin SF, Loeser JD, Turk DC, Widerstrom-Noga E, Arnold L, Bennett R, Edwards RR, Freeman R, Gewandter J, Hertz S, Hochberg M, Krane E, Mantyh PW, Markman J, Neogi T, Ohrbach R, Paice J, Porreca F, Rappaport BA, Smith SM, Smith TJ, Sullivan MD, Verne GN, Wasan AD, Wesselmann U. The ACTTION-American Pain Society Pain Taxonomy (AAPT): an evidence-based and multi-dimensional approach to classifying chronic pain conditions. Journal of Pain, in press.