Although adequate pain control should be one of the main goals of the practicing veterinarian—with the aim of improving quality of life, therapeutic response, and survival time of their patients—pain management is not always applied correctly and effectively in general veterinary practice, especially in certain species.
The limited application of analgesic protocols by veterinarians can be attributed to several factors: a lack of in-depth knowledge of pain neurophysiology, its clinical consequences, and the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of the various classes of available analgesics; fear of the potential side effects of these drugs—which may be even more pronounced in patients whose painful condition is associated with underlying pathology; the limited number of analgesic drugs that are approved and available for veterinary use; and, most importantly, the difficulty in recognizing the presence of pain and assessing its intensity in non-verbal individuals.At present, there is still no universally recognized system for assessing pain in animals. Various strategies have been investigated both experimentally and in clinical practice in an attempt to identify objective measures capable of evaluating acute and chronic pain in dogs and cats. These include the observation and recording of physiological, neuroendocrine, metabolic, and locomotor responses to pain. However, these measures alone do not serve as reliable indicators of painful states, as they can be influenced by many factors other than pain. An alternative or complementary approach to pain assessment in these species is the use of pain scales, particularly multiparametric scales that consider specific psychomotor changes and pain-related expressions, as well as the effects of verbal and physical interactions between the animal, the observer, and the surrounding environment.
The main limitation to effective pain management in veterinary medicine is therefore attributable to the lack of a clear and universally accepted diagnostic method for assessing pain in animals. This leads to significant challenges in recognizing and quantifying pain, as well as in identifying its origin—similar to what occurs in non-verbal human patients, particularly when dealing with persistent or neuropathic pain whose cause is difficult to determine.
The difficulty in recognizing the presence of pain can at times complicate the formulation of a pathogenetic diagnosis, and consequently hinder the application of specific therapeutic protocols tailored to the type of pain involved.
At present, while there are already international organizations specifically dedicated to animal pain—such as the IVAPM (International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management) in the United States and the 'Special Interest Group in Pain Management in Non-Human Species' within the IASP in Europe—no research groups or associations focused specifically on this topic had yet been established in Italy. This is despite the fact that, at various levels (both academic and otherwise), research projects related to different aspects of pain have begun to emerge, indicating a growing awareness and interest in the subject.
Based on this context, the Animal Pain Research Center (CeRiDA) has been established at the Department of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Perugia, with the aim of conducting both research and educational activities.
The Center involves members from the Department of Veterinary Medicine (University of Perugia, IT) —since pain is a multidisciplinary topic, efforts have been made to include representatives from all the main areas potentially involved—as well as from the Department of Medicine and Surgery (Univeristy of Perugia, IT), given the many similarities between animals and human patients in terms of the challenges related to recognizing pain in non-verbal individuals. The initiative reflects a meaningful and productive collaboration between the two Departments.