
Identifying the Top Priorities for Pediatric Chronic Pain Research and Care
Approximately 1 to 3 million Canadian children and teens live with chronic pain. Children with chronic pain and their families are experts on what it’s like to live with pain, but until now, research has not asked what issues they care about most.
Our national Partnering For Pain team engaged hundreds of Canadian youth, families, and pediatric chronic pain clinicians in a rigorous James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership to identify the top research priorities in pediatric chronic pain.
We engaged individuals with lived experience with chronic pain during childhood (youth and adults), family members, and treating healthcare providers across four priority setting stages:





The final identified priorities are a call to action to ensure that future research in pediatric chronic pain focuses on what is most important to people who will use it in their everyday lives.
Top 10 patient-oriented research priorities in pediatric chronic pain
- What treatments or strategies effectively prevent acute pain from becoming chronic in children and adolescents?
- What is the impact of living with chronic pain on children’s and adolescents’ academic performance and educational attainment, and what strategies best support vocational planning for children and adolescents with chronic pain?
- What physical and psychological treatments are effective for improving pain and function in children and adolescents with chronic pain (for example, functional outcomes including quality of life, depression, fatigue, sleep, acceptance, concentration, resilience, coping, self-management)?
- What strategies improve access and delivery of evidence-based treatments, and coordination of care, for all Canadian children and adolescents with chronic pain, and their families, with a view to reduce disparities?
- What strategies effectively increase healthcare providers training, knowledge, recognition, beliefs, attitudes, and communication about the validity and risk of chronic pain with children and adolescents, and its evidence-based treatments?
- What strategies effectively increase government and healthcare organization financial support for evidence-based chronic pain care in Canada?
- What strategies for educating school personnel about pediatric chronic pain effectively increase their awareness, understanding, and recognition of the validity, impact, and treatment of pediatric chronic pain?
- What interventions are effective for managing acute pain flares in children and adolescents with chronic pain?
- What is the interaction between chronic pain and mental health symptoms in children and adolescents, and when and how can co-occurring chronic pain and mental health symptoms be most effectively diagnosed and treated?
- When are treatments for chronic pain in children and adolescents most effective (for example, after medical investigation is complete, or variation by type of treatment modality, or readiness of child/adolescent or family to engage in treatment)?

Priority Setting Partnership and the Top 10 priorities: A 1-page overview

Read our publications in the scientific journals CMAJ Open and the Canadian Journal of Pain
Researchers & Health Professionals
Krista Baerg, MD
University of Saskatchewan
Fiona Campbell, MD
The Hospital for Sick Children
Jill Chorney, PhD
IWK Health Centre and Dalhousie University
Paula Forgeron, PhD
University of Ottawa
Christine Lamontagne, MDMC FRCPC
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and University of Ottawa
Melanie Noel, PhD
University of Calgary
Patricia Poulin, PhD
University of Ottawa
Patient &
Parent Partners
Katherine Dib
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Mary Anne Dib
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Esther Fleurimond
Gatineau, Quebec
Isabel Jordan, BSc
Squamish, British Columbia
Justina Marianayagam, BHSc
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
Kimberly Nelson
Windsor, Ontario
Carley Ouellette, BScN
Hamilton, Ontario
Dallyne Pahtayken
Onion Lake, Saskatchewan
Dolores Pahtayken
Onion Lake, Saskatchewan
Adam Val Bonzil
Gatineau, Quebec
Government &
Policy Partners
Julie Drury
Ottawa, Ontario
Garry Salisbury, MD
formerly Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care
Project Funders






Project Partners




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