Washington University Graduate Education
Pain Itch Analgesia Course
This course provides a heuristic, semi-quantitative and integrative approach to concepts in somatosensory biology, primarily focusing on pain and itch. Relevant principles and quantitative methods are reviewed to facilitate the application of abstract concepts to the mechanistic understanding of pain, touch and itch processing, based on extensive research literature and observations in rodents and humans. Clinical pain and itch syndromes in humans, as well as investigative rodent models pain and itch are presented and discussed in the context of cellular/neurophysiological mechanisms. This course also also discusses the mechanisms of action of analgesics at molecular, cellular and organism levels, and provide a review of recent advances in the discovery and development of new-generation analgesics. Student/trainee presentations and group discussions are incorporated at regular intervals between the lecture line-up for discussion of recent research findings on those relevant topics/areas. The overall goal of this course is to develop in-depth understanding of somatosensory biology, specifically underlying the processing of pain and itch, which would ultimately empower the students and trainees with knowledge and expertise in these areas of Anesthesiology and Neurobiology.