Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Postoperative chronic pain affects approximately 35-60% of children undergoing major surgery. In contrast to recent improvements in pharmacological treatments of postoperative acute pain, psychological factors involved in the transition from acute to chronic pain following paediatric surgery have been understudied and are poorly understood. The short-term goals of this study are three-folds. First, this study will assess the role of pain anxiety in the transition from acute to chronic postoperative pain in children undergoing major surgery. Second, this study will assess the relationship between parental and children pain anxiety and their impact on acute pain intensity and unpleasantness as well as on the transition from acute to chronic pain. Third, this study will examine gender differences in a) subjective levels of reported postoperative pain and b) maternal and paternal influences on postoperative pain in daughters and sons. Pain anxiety plays a central role in fear-based models of chronic pain in adult populations. This construct has yet to be introduced in the paediatric literature. Identifying psychological factors that put children at higher risks of developing chronic pain can have major implications in terms of treatment and prevention. In the long-term, results from this study have the potential to improve delivery of health care services in the domain of postoperative pain and can help prevent the progression of acute postoperative pain into chronic pain. At the individual level, patients would benefit from outcomes of this study as it has the potential to create pain-anxiety specific psychological treatments for children who undergo major surgery.