American Pain Society

History

The American Pain Society (APS) was formed by American clinicians, researchers, and teachers in the field of pain in response to a growing interest in and need for a national pain organization that would also serve as a chapter of the International Association for the Study of Pain. The society was to foster research and education in the multidisciplinary field of pain in the United States.

Organizational work began in 1977, when John J. Bonica, on February 18, sent a letter to twenty-six other key American colleagues asking them to attend a meeting in Chicago just sixteen days later as members of "the Advisory Committee for the founding of the American Pain Society." Despite the short notice, all but six of the invitees attended the meeting. (Bonica missed it as well due to complications from hip surgery.) All motions were unanimously approved: the decision to found a national society compatible with the IASP; the provision for regional, state, or other subgroups; that B. Berthold Wolff-who was co-chairing the meeting along with B. Raymond Fink--should chair a Steering Committee; and that there would be a Membership Committee.

Membership in the Society was initially solicited by Wolff in a letter dated June 28, 1977 and sent to all American members of the IASP and its Eastern and Western Regional Chapters. Ultimately, there were 510 charter members of the Society by the time it was officially inaugurated in December, 1978. The APS had its first Annual Scientific Meeting in San Diego on September 9-10, 1979.

In 1989, 63% of APS members responding to a survey voted that the APS should have its own journal. APS Journal debuted with the Spring 1992 issue and has been published as Pain Forum since 1995.

In the past twenty years, membership has grown to include over 3000 pain professionals.

From the guide to the American Pain Society Records, 1977-1991, (Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division)