Pain – Terrifying Lord of Life
The opening ceremony of the scientific conference, Pain – Terrifying Lord of Life, organized by the SASA Department of Medical Sciences in partnership with the Erasmus+, a program of the European Commission aimed at capacity building for higher education through the project Strengthening Capacities of Higher Education of Pain Medicine in Western Balkan Countries (HEPMP), will take place in the SASA Grand Hall on Monday, Oct. 22, at 10 a.m. On this occasion, top Serbian and foreign experts will be talking about the most diverse aspects of pain. Some of the topics that will be addressed include pain medicine in Serbia, the existential meaning of suffering, the importance of early recognition of vascular pain, pain-free delivery, two hundred faces of headache, opiophobia, opioids in chronic non-malignant pain, etc.
“Pain is a basic evolutionary mechanism and one of the oldest stressors. Nevertheless, unlike other medical problems, today, in the 21st century, pain is still on the margins of interest of medical practitioners and society in general. Normally, a person does not think about pain until they experience it or until someone around them is in pain. Then pain becomes the terrifying lord of life. It affects the whole person, seizes their entire attention and profoundly changes their life. Even today, when medical knowledge is so great, we are unable to control pain entirely. Even though science has been observing pain in a comprehensive manner for a long time now, medical practitioners have failed to find a way to apply this comprehensive approach systemically. The first step towards a solution is by all means a change in the attitudes of professionals who deal with pain, which implies extended education about pain, raising the awareness of the importance of the problem and possible treatment, and the need also to engage those who are not professionals, but have realized at some point in their lives how beautiful life is without pain,” explains Prof. Predrag Stevanović, member of the Organizing Committee of the conference.