About
September is Pain Awareness Month
September is Pain Awareness Month, an annual campaign dedicated to increasing understanding of pain, pain management, and the experiences of people living with pain.
Pain Awareness Month was established in 2001 through a coalition led by the American Chronic Pain Association. Today, organizations around the world use September to share reliable information, elevate lived experience, and advocate for better pain research, education, and care.
Each September, IASP brings a global perspective to Pain Awareness Month by sharing evidence-based resources, current research, educational opportunities, and perspectives from across the international pain community.
Use the resources on this page throughout September to learn, share, and help advance the conversation about pain.
Get Involved
Spread the Word
Help increase understanding of pain by sharing IASP resources with your colleagues, patients, students, institutions, and communities.
Feature Pain Awareness Month in your organization’s newsletter or website, share educational resources with your professional network, or make evidence-based information available in your clinic, classroom, workplace, or community.
Use #PainAwarenessMonth
Join the conversation on social media using #PainAwarenessMonth.
Share IASP resources and follow IASP on Facebook, X, Instagram, Bluesky, and LinkedIn throughout September for research, educational resources, perspectives from people with lived experience of pain, and opportunities to engage with the global pain community.
Support IASP
Help IASP continue its work to advance pain research, education, advocacy, and care around the world.
Support specific IASP programs, help expand opportunities for the global pain community, or make a general contribution.
PAIN AWARENESS MONTH 2026
Understand. Advocate. Partner. Advance.
Throughout September 2026, IASP will explore four connected ways the global pain community can strengthen understanding of pain and help translate that understanding into better research, education, and care.
Week 1: Understand
Week 2: Advocate
Week 3: Partner
Week 4: Advance
Week 1: UNDERSTAND
Better pain care begins with better understanding.
During the first week of Pain Awareness Month, explore neuropathic pain through the lens of the 2026 IASP Global Year on Neuropathic Pain. Learn about its impact on people and communities, advances and challenges in diagnosis and treatment, the role of psychological and social factors, and priorities for future research.
Resources
- 2026 IASP Global Year on Neuropathic Pain
- An Overview of Neuropathic Pain and Its Impact
- What is Neuropathic Pain? A Guide for Patients
- Identifying Neuropathic Pain in the Clinic: A Guide for Clinicians
- Psychological and Social Factors in Neuropathic Pain
- Challenges in Managing Neuropathic Pain in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
- 2026 Global Year Education on PERC
Week 2: ADVOCATE
Effective pain care requires communication, collaboration, and shared decision-making.
This week focuses on practical ways people living with pain can participate in conversations about their health and care, as well as the responsibility of healthcare professionals to listen, validate lived experience, communicate clearly, and support people in identifying approaches that are meaningful to them.
Explore resources that can help people prepare for healthcare conversations, strengthen partnerships with healthcare professionals, and develop supported self-management skills.
Resources
Week 3: PARTNER
People with lived experience bring essential knowledge to the study of pain.
Meaningful partnership can help ensure that pain research asks relevant questions, reflects the priorities of the people it is intended to serve, and translates knowledge into practice more effectively.
This week, learn how people with lived experience can contribute as partners across the research process, from identifying priorities and developing research questions to study design, interpretation, dissemination, and knowledge translation.
IASP’s Global Alliance of Partners for Pain Advocacy (GAPPA) brings together people with lived experience of pain, patient advocates, researchers, clinicians, healthcare providers, and other partners to strengthen the integration of lived experience across pain research, management, education, and advocacy.
Resources
Week 4: ADVANCE
Awareness becomes meaningful when knowledge leads to action.
During the final week of Pain Awareness Month, explore opportunities to strengthen knowledge, exchange research, and advance pain care through continuing education and collaboration across disciplines and regions.
IASP provides year-round opportunities for pain professionals to learn from current research and one another through the Pain Education Resource Center (PERC), IASP publications, webinars, and international scientific programming.
On 24 September, the 2026 Global Year continues with the free webinar Human-Centered Approaches to Neuropathic Pain: From Mechanisms to Translation, examining how human-based research can help translate mechanistic discoveries into clinically meaningful insights.
The conversation continues in Bangkok at the 2026 World Congress on Pain, 26–30 October, where the international pain community will come together to exchange research, explore developments in pain science and care, and build collaborations across disciplines.
Resources
From Awareness to Action
Pain Awareness Month is an opportunity to increase understanding, but the work continues throughout the year.
Understand pain through rigorous science.
Advocate for meaningful participation in pain care.
Partner with people whose lived experience can strengthen research and education.
Advance knowledge by learning, collaborating, and sharing evidence across the global pain community.
Together, these actions can help move the conversation about pain forward and support IASP’s work toward better pain relief throughout the world.
OTHER RESOURCES
Explore additional Pain Awareness Month information and resources from organizations working across the pain community, including:
- Alleviate
- American Academy of Pain Medicine
- American Chronic Pain Foundation
- American Society of Anesthesiologists
- British Pain Society
- Pain Week
- U.S. Pain Foundation
The opinions and resources shared by these organizations are their own and do not represent an adopted position or endorsement by IASP.