Severe pain is a major health care problem, since almost 20% of the European population, actually, suffers from chronic or intermittent pain, that results in suffering and disability for patients and increasing economic loss for society. Only 1/3 of patients receive pain relief from current analgesics, like opiates, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, local anaesthetics, tricyclic antidepressants and anticonvulsants, including carbamazepine and gabapentin. Therefore, it seems notable that recent developments in the understanding of the mechanisms that, individually or collectively, produce pain have disclosed new potential therapeutic targets for the development of more effective drugs.

During the last decade, Parghelia (Calabria, Italy), harboured the ‘Workshop on Apoptosis In Biology and Medicine’, which VIII edition (25th May 2005), gathered together scientists and PhD students to discuss the most recent advances in neuroplasticity in pain and cell death.

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