Chronic neuropathic pain severely affects the quality of life of the individual and represents a major health issue for society with considerable economic consequences, e.g. increased medical expenses and public pension expenditure.

Chronic pain is difficult to treat and can seldom be cured, but in many cases it can be reduced, and a means to improve the treatment is to increase our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms.

The current focus areas are:

• Functions of the somatosensory nervous system

• Understanding risk factors and determinants for neuropathic pain

• Molecular mechanisms of neuropathic pain assessed in human skin biopsies and cultured human cells

• Function of peripheral nerve fibers and identification of pain generators assessed by microneurography

• Phenotype-based treatments

• Improving clinical trial design and understanding placebo responses

• The sympathetic nervous system and pain

• Chronic pain conditions, including painful polyneuropathy as a consequence of diabetes and chemotherapy, neuropathic pain following surgery and injury, painful radiculopathy, pain in spinal cord injury and syringomyelia, and complex regional pain syndrome