IASP will host 18 Special Interest Group (SIG) Symposia on 26 October at the 2026 World Congress on Pain. SIG Symposia require additional registration to attend.
SIG Symposia provide attendees with presentations and discussions on a single, specific research or educational topic in the pain field. Each session is approximately 4 hours.
Browse by SIG
Advancing Placebo Research: Methodological Innovation, Expectation Measurement, and Bias Reduction
This symposium addresses a critical challenge in placebo research: the need for rigorous, reproducible, and translational methodologies that accurately capture the mechanisms and impacts of placebo effects across diverse contexts. Despite growing recognition of the clinical relevance of placebo responses, significant variability in study designs, measurement approaches (particularly regarding expectations), and susceptibility to biases has hindered progress in the field. This symposium brings together international leaders to advance the methodological foundations of placebo research through three interconnected sessions.
Assessing and Managing Pain in Patients with Limited Communication Abilities
This is a combined symposium of The Special Interest Group on Pain in Older Persons in conjunction with the Special Interest Group on Pain in People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
It offers a comprehensive overview of current approaches and essential modifications for assessing and managing pain in individuals with limited verbal communication, such as those with dementia, intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), cerebral palsy, or autism.
From Data to Decisions: Standards, Trials, and Global Scale for Pain Registries
Pain registries are central to real-world evidence, quality improvement, and post-market surveillance in pain care—yet progress is slowed by fragmented measures, incompatible data models, and uneven governance across regions. This half-day session delivers practical tools to fix that. We will discuss start/scale playbooks for diverse settings (including LMICs) covering minimal datasets, capture workflows (EHR, patient portal, SMS/offline), consent, and sustainability.
From Incision to Impact: Global Strategies to Prevent Persistent Postsurgical Pain and Long-Term Opioid Use
This symposium brings together global perspectives on this topic—from Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America—to examine how different healthcare systems are responding to the challenge. We'll look at data-driven insights into opioid prescribing after surgery, the effectiveness of early interventions, and innovations like transitional pain services and bundled are approaches. We’ll also consider the role of predictive models and the impact of extended-release opioids, questioning where they fit in modern pain management strategies. At the end, we discuss a research agenda on these issues elaborated by the Acute Pain SIG and participants of the satellite symposium.
From Molecules to Patients, from Mechanisms to Treatments: Neuropathic Pain in its Global Year
The symposium will be structured into three main blocks: updates from mechanistic studies and understanding neuropathic pain in the lab; translating knowledge from cells and animal studies to humans; and applying state-of-the-art understanding to treating patients (non-)pharmacologically.
Each block will be chaired by a senior leader of the field and the NeuPSIG. We will have four brief presentations for each block, allowing for a fully balanced mix covering geographical, gender, and career-level representation. We will recruit this speaker team through the NeuPSIG congress 2025 and by reviewing poster abstracts for the World Congress.
From Teens to Post-Menopause: Female Pelvic Pain Throughout the Lifespan
This multidisciplinary symposium will explore pelvic pain through a developmental and lifespan-oriented lens, integrating basic science, translational research, and clinical insights. Presentations will cover distinct life stages and conditions, including dysmenorrhea at menarche, uterine pains that emerge later in life, postoperative visceral pain, vestibulodynia subtypes, and chronic bladder pain. International experts will discuss the hormonal, neuroimmune, and neuroplastic mechanisms that contribute to symptom persistence and the transition from localized to widespread pain.
Integrating Pain Phenotypes, Pain Science Education and Behavioural Change: Toward Personalized Pain Approaches
The symposium is developed around two keynote presentations on pain phenotypes and pain science education. The first is followed by a practical workshop that exemplifies how to translate existing evidence on pain phenotype into research-grounded clinical practice approaches. The 2nd keynote will integrate theoretical and practical approaches, focusing on how to deliver and tailor pain science education.
New Advances in the Diagnosis and Management of Musculoskeletal Pain
This symposium will highlight some of the latest advancements in musculoskeletal pain, spanning novel pain mechanisms and treatments, clinical phenotyping and implementation science. It features a series of talks by global leaders in our field and some of our most promising emerging researchers.
Next-Gen Pediatric Pain Care: Building Adaptive and Scalable Solutions Across Care Settings
In the symposium, we will provide an overview of novel evidence-based strategies that can be utilized across contexts and populations. Speakers will include clinicians and researchers across multiple disciplines. Presentations will be interactive and highly focused on ensuring attendees leave with clinically adaptable, scalable, ‘practice-ready’, pain care strategies that can be easily implemented in both high and low resource areas.
Pain & Trauma; Today and Tomorrow
This symposium explores the ways in which stress and trauma shape pain across the lifespan. Attendees will hear how exposure to stressful or traumatic events can sensitize the stress system and lead to chronic pain, with neural markers of trauma being identified in key regions of the pain matrix. Speakers will present new findings showing that while childhood adversity is linked to an increased risk of persistent pain, it does not necessarily prime pro‑inflammatory responses or modify vaccine‑evoked nociceptive processing, highlighting the importance of social support and resilience. The program also includes a Māori storytelling perspective on pain, global insights into rising traumatic amputation rates, and discussions on allied‑health training and trauma‑informed care to set research priorities for a more compassionate future.
Innovations in Pain Education – Optimizing the Experiences of Trainees in a Hybrid Learning Environment
This symposium highlights innovative methods in pain education, focusing on the delivery of highly impactful experiences in hybrid (asynchronous plus in-person) learning environments in diverse health professions; speakers represent a range of experience. In addition to presentations, we will facilitate an interactive session with delegates in a moderated discussion of pain education innovations.
Sex, Gender, and Racial Differences in Pain across the Translational Research Spectrum in the Current Geo-Political Climate
The symposium will cover topics that address the challenges and opportunities to examine sex, gender, and racial differences – and their identity intersections -- to the pathophysiology, experiences, and management of chronic pain in the current geopolitical climate. The symposium will engage a wide range of participants who are doing research across the translational research spectrum from preclinical to community-based health services research, and will address contemporaneous topics related to the impact of policies and societal attitudes on health equity research.
Social Aspects of Pain: The Time is Now
This symposium opens with a lively debate about digital technologies and social media – tools that can expand access to psychosocial care but also depend on patient engagement and quality control - highlighting the promise of peer support while underscoring the need to curb negative interactions and misinformation. Presenters then share community‑based pain initiatives from diverse cultures, drawing on evidence that whole‑person, culturally rooted approaches delivered through voluntary and community sectors can provide a personalised, salutogenic pathway for people with persistent pain. A forum on methodology offers practical strategies for conducting socially grounded research in under‑resourced settings, while curated networking breaks encourage participants to reflect on how social ties and positive emotions can lower pain intensity and improve coping.
The ‘Complex’ Realities of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: Subtypes, Severity, and the Challenges of Classification
This symposium aims to build shared understanding around classification within CRPS. Leading researchers will present new evidence and perspectives on subtypes, including differences (or lack thereof) according to sex and upper vs lower limb involvement. The questions of how to classify differences in severity, and acute vs chronic forms will be discussed, along with when CRPS can be considered resolved. Finally, the utility and limitations of the CRPS I vs CRPS II distinction will be critically evaluated.
The Global Challenge of Orofacial Pain
This symposium will explore the global burden of OFP, with a particular focus on how social, cultural, and healthcare system factors affect access to care, diagnostic accuracy, and treatment options. Presenters will share recent epidemiological data, novel scientific advances, and innovative models of interprofessional education frameworks designed to bridge current gaps in OFP care and education.
The Rise of the Robots: Navigating Artificial Intelligence and Automation in Evidence Synthesis
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies represents a critical moment for the process of evidence syntheses. AI promises the automation of all aspects of the evidence synthesis process and products are already emerging for researchers to use.
In this workshop we will present a critical overview of the current state of the art of automation for each key stages of evidence synthesis. We will identify opportunities, address risks and challenges, and explore responsible use of AI now and in the future.
To There and Back Again: Bridging Translational Neuroimaging and Mechanistic Insight in Human and Animal Research
This joint symposium organized by the Neuroimaging of Pain SIG and the Non Human Pain SIG will highlight recent breakthroughs in neuroimaging and animal research, emphasizing how discoveries from each have mutually informed and advanced our understanding of the neural circuitry underlying pain. While human neuroimaging and animal research have often been seen as complementary, recent developments in neuroimaging have shown its capacity to address mechanistic questions uniquely suited to the human brain – just as animal studies continue to illuminate mechanisms inaccessible with human models.
Toward Precision Medicine: Integrating Advances in Pain Genetics from Model Systems to Clinical Cohorts
Genetic research in pain is entering a transformative era, driven by powerful new technologies, deeply phenotyped patient cohorts, and integrative multi-omic approaches. This symposium will showcase advances across four key domains shaping the future of pain genetics.
Registration Rates
All prices listed are in U.S. Dollars.
Lower‑Middle Income Country and Upper‑Middle Income Country status