Chronic Pain Management in Veterinary Medicine

Dear Colleagues, 

Recognition and management of chronic pain represents a real challenge for veterinary practitioners, and often an unmet need for veterinary patients. Chronic pain is difficult to identify in animals, as they often hide their suffering, mainly resulting in slight progressive changes in the animal's lifestyle that only the owner is able to detect. Moreover, due to the complexity of molecular mechanisms which underlie the development of chronic pain (which can be inflammatory, neuropathic or mixed in nature), classic analgesics such as NSAIDs and opioids may not find their target of action along the pain pathway and consequently may not be fully effective in pain management. Thus, other measures—pharmacologic (i.e., adjuvants analgesics) and/or non-pharmacologic (e.g., nutraceuticals, acupuncture, physical techniques, etc.)—need to be introduced in the analgesic protocol. It should also be remembered that chronic pain requires long-term or even life-long treatment, with consequent problems of tolerability and safety.

Despite a vast amount of empirical evidence, veterinary literature concerning chronic pain recognition strategies and efficacy and safety of analgesic measures, both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic, is still lacking. Few useful objective measures (such as Clinical Metrology Instruments—CMI) for detecting pain in different animal species have been formulated and validated in the target languages and cultures, and drug choice, doses and treatment intervals are often provided empirically, extrapolating data from the human side.

This Special Issue on “Chronic Pain Management in Veterinary Medicine” aims to present recent research and reviews in order to stimulate interest, understanding and exploration of this important field.

Original manuscripts concerning chronic pain management in animals are invited for this Special Issue, particularly those that: (1) provide strategies and tools for recognition and quantification of chronic pain; (2) provide pharmacokinetic information for setting up analgesic protocols (in terms of posology) in the target species and (3) demonstrate the efficacy and safety of the tested therapeutic strategies.

Each contribution will represent an add-on to the existing literature, providing veterinary practitioners with knowledge and skills that will enable a better pain management in their patients.

Prof. Dr. Giorgia della Rocca
Prof. Dr. Mario Giorgi
Dr. Sara Nannarone
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• pain recognition
• pain scales
• Clinical Metrology Instruments (CMIs)
• analgesia
• analgesics
• mode of action
• pharmacokinetics
• efficacy
• safety
• nutritional supplements
• acupuncture
• physical rehabilitation