Pain research can feel distant and abstract—removed from the day-to-day reality of chronic pain, dwindling treatment options, and the long wait for relief.

But research offers hope—perhaps not today or tomorrow, but down the road. For us. For our loved ones. For those in the future who will walk the same path, with the same pain.

This progress depends on those who dedicate their efforts, health, expertise, and often decades of their lives to the research uncovering better treatment options and understanding.

Thank you … to healthy volunteers participating in early-stage clinical trials. You don’t live with chronic pain—but you step forward to test treatments that might one day help those who do. You participate not for your own benefit, but to help ensure these therapies are safe for others. Pain care would not advance without your selflessness.

Thank you … to research participants. Despite the challenges caused by your pain, you enroll in studies that may not directly help you, but could eventually benefit others. You pause your own treatment, juggle logistics, and commit your time and energy, knowing there are no guarantees. Your courage and willingness to step into the unknown make meaningful change possible.

Thank you … to lived-experience advisers. You join research teams to shine a light on what it’s truly like to live with pain—so that studies reflect our realities, remain accessible, and deliver outcomes that matter. You’re often the only one in the room with lived experience, navigating jargon and systemic blind spots to ensure our voices are centered in research—not sidelined.

And finally: Thank you … to pain scientists and researchers working to unravel pain. You dedicate years—often decades—pushing the boundaries of what we know, knowing full well that progress is slow and setbacks are constant. Some of you live with pain yourselves; many do not. Some of you may never see the full impact of your work.

Yet you persist: scouring tissue, studying animals, decoding molecules, screening countless compounds, conducting study after study, relentlessly searching for what might bring relief. You invest in hope without guarantees. And in doing so, you help rewrite what’s possible—for all of us.

Please continue incorporating lived experience in research design, and keep dismantling the barriers that prevent many from participating or benefiting. We see your efforts, and they’re driving real change. This edition incorporates all of these voices—and every single one is essential.

Thank you.