Grant: Fellowship - Priority Announcement: HMC Prize in Children's Mental Health

Unfortunately, chronic pain is surprisingly common in childhood and adolescence, particularly among adolescent girls. Children who develop chronic pain are likely to grow up to become adults with chronic pain and this has enormous economic, psychological, and social costs to individuals and society. Our recent research shows that short-term pain turns into persistent pain for up to 50% of children following surgery and children's memories for pain may be important in determining why pain problems become chronic over time. However, we are only beginning to understand why some children are at risk for developing chronic pain whereas other children cope better with the pain or heal completely and go on to have healthy, productive lives without pain. It is critical to identify the childhood risk and protective factors that predict who develops chronic pain and who does not so that we can design interventions to stop pain from extending into adulthood. Based on strong research, we recently developed the "pediatric fear-avoidance model of chronic pain" to explain why pain becomes chronic for some children and not others. The objective of our study is to test this model and examine memories for pain among children undergoing major surgery so that we can identify risk and protective factors for the development of chronic pain. The results of this research will not only indicate the best ways to help children undergoing painful medical procedures and surgery but will also help protect children from developing chronic pain problems throughout their lives.