New Zealand Pain Society Inc - Thorndon

PROMOTING PAIN RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES FOR PEOPLE WITH PAIN AND THEIR WHĀNAU.

The New Zealand Pain Society is a chapter of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP).

The IASP was founded in 1973.  It is the world’s largest multidisciplinary organisation that is focussed specifically on pain research and treatment.  

IASP brings together scientists, clinicians, healthcare providers, and policy makers to stimulate and support the study of pain and to translate that knowledge into improved pain relief worldwide.  The IASP currently has more than 6500 members worldwide and the NZPS is the New Zealand Chapter of this organisation. 

The Purposes of the New Zealand Pain Society are exclusively educational, scientific and charitable in nature:

• To improve the management of patients with acute and persistent pain.
• To bring together basic scientists, health professionals and others who have an interest in pain research and management.
• To foster and encourage research into pain mechanisms and pain syndromes.
• To promote education and training in the field of pain.
• To promote and facilitate the dissemination of new information in the field of pain.
• To promote and sponsor an annual New Zealand Scientific Meeting of the Society and such other meetings as may be useful or desirable for the advancement of the purposes of the Society.
• To encourage the formation of regional associations for the study and treatment of pain.
• To encourage the adoption of a uniform classification, nomenclature and definition regarding pain and pain syndromes.
• To inform the general public of the results and implications of current research in the area.
• To advise national and regional agencies of standards relating to the use of drugs, appliances and other procedures in the therapy of pain.
• To encourage the development of a national data bank and of a uniform records system with respect to information relating to pain mechanisms, syndromes and management.
• To engage in such other activities as may be incidental to or in furtherance of the aforementioned purpose

Read the NZPS Constitution here.

History of the NZPS

The New Zealand Pain Society (NZPS) was born out of the efforts of a passionate and committed group of New Zealand clinicians.

1978 – The Australasian Pain Society held their first conference at La Trobe University and Royal Southern Memorial Hospital, on the 1^st December, 1978. Following this Meeting it was decided to form the NZPS as a chapter of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP).

1983 – On the 16^th April 1983, 60 members attended the first meeting of the NZPS, in Wellington. Not long after this, in July, the NZPS became a chapter of the IASP.

1984- The first meeting of the NZPS chapter of the IASP occurred on the 3^rd September, in Seattle

Today the NZPS has approximately 700 members from a variety of specialities including:

• Doctors (anesthesia, palliative care, rehabilitation medicine, musculo-skeletal medicine, psychiatry, neurosurgery)
• Nurses (specialist pain management nurses and others from different specialty areas)
• Physiotherapists
• Psychologists
• Dentists
• Social workers
• Occupational therapists
• Osteopaths
• Pain researchers
• Others with a special interest in pain. 

The NZPS promotes education, training, research and development in all areas of pain.

If you are a health professional interested in the management of pain, find out more about the benefits of membership.