About APS

History

Following is a brief chronicle of events and individuals instrumental in the establishment of the society.

History of the American Pain Society

The American Pain Society (APS) had its beginnings on March 6, 1977 at a now historic meeting in Chicago of the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on the Formation of a National Pain Organization. Important events preparing the way for the Chicago meeting were significant increases in public awareness of pain management and research; the need for a national organization of pain professionals; the existence of two regional pain societies, the Eastern and Western USA Chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP); and the growth of the IASP.

It was realized that the new IASP in its early years would have to rely heavily on financial and membership support from the US Consequently, there was some urgency for the creation of a US national pain organization to work with and become an integral part (i.e., chapter) of the IASP, as well as represent the interests of the various local and/or regional pain groups within the US Preliminary discussions between representatives of the eastern and western chapter leaders resulted in the decision to hold a joint face-to-face conference. Drs. John J. Bonica and B. Berthold Wolff were asked to invite interested pain professionals from across the US, covering a wide disciplinary range, to the Chicago meeting.

Following is a list of the 28 people invited to the Chicago meeting, with an asterisk indicating that the person did not attend:

At the Chicago conference, the first motion, moved by Sweet, seconded by Kerr, and approved unanimously, was that there be formed an American Association for the Study of Pain (AASP). It was conceived that this organization would be multidisciplinary and encompass all areas of interest, from basic science to clinical applications and treatment, and that these various areas would be represented on its governing body. It was recognized that eastern and western chapters would have to relinquish their chapter status in the IASP, although both had been among the founding chapters of the IASP, in order that the new national organization could replace them as the single United States chapter. In turn, both the eastern and western groups would become the first chapters of the new national society. (Subsequently, the IASP changed its bylaws restricting chapter status to a single pain association from any given country.) The conference participants also agreed to strongly support the IASP and not to create potential foci of conflict or competition. Therefore, it was decided not to have a national annual meeting during the year of an international IASP convention. Furthermore, the national society would not produce a journal to prevent possible competition with the then new IASP journal, Pain. (The strong growth of the IASP recently resulted in the abolishment of both preceding restrictions.) Dr. Wolff was asked to form and head a steering committee for the formation of a national pain society (i.e., a smaller working group) of the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee. The members of this committee were Bonica, Houde, Kerr, Laskin, Liebeskind, Sweet, Willis, and Wolff (Chair). This steering committee was to advise the Advisory Committee on the organization and structure of the AASP.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter from Wolff dated June 28, 1977, Bert sought new members for the society, offering charter membership to any who would join right away, paying $10 (the good old days!) as initial dues. In that letter, he also sought a vote from those joining on whether they wished the name of their society to be the American Pain Society (APS) or American Association for the Study of Pain (AASP). The name originally approved by the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee at the March 6, Chicago meeting was AASP; but of the 444 original charter members as of October 17, 1977, 221 voted for APS, 156 voted for AASP, 57 voted for “other,” and 10 expressed no preference.

The name of the organization was changed to the American Pain Society at the second meeting of the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on October 22, 1977, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. The IASP Council gave provisional approval for chapter status to the APS at its meeting September 6, 1977. Final ratification took place at the IASP General Assembly in Montreal in August 1978. Also at that time, the Pro Tempore Board of Directors of APS held its first meeting, and the first business meeting of the newly ratified APS was held.

The steering committee adopted most of the IASP Constitution as the basis for the constitution of the national society. A bylaws committee, consisting of Dr. Frederick W. Kerr (chair), Dr. Edward R. Perl, and Dr. Wolff (ex officio), wrote the first constitution and bylaws. The draft bylaws were considered at the Montreal business meeting, but not approved, in part due to the feeling that 29 directors were too many and that the number should be reduced to 15 (which it ultimately was). The revised bylaws were considered and ratified at a meeting of the board in New York on December 2, 1978.

Also at that meeting, Dr. Wolff reported that there were 510 charter members, and announced the results of the first official APS election--236 legal ballots received in the election of the first Nominating Committee [Sweet (Chair), J. Adams, B.R. Fink, R. Houde, J. Liebeskind]. Dr. Bonica was chosen as the chairman of the board, and Dr. Wolff was elected first president, serving from 1978 to 1980. The other elected officers were Dr. Benjamin L. Crue, Jr., President-Elect; Dr. Arthur F. Battista, secretary; and Dr. William D. Willis, treasurer. Dr. B. Raymond Fink was chosen to serve as liaison secretary to IASP. Somewhat later, Dr. William H. Sweet succeeded Dr.

Kerr as chair of the Bylaws Committee and was instrumental in eventually obtaining nonprofit status for the organization (which became incorporated in the District of Columbia in 1978) from the Internal Revenue Service. Dr. Diane Chen, then an employee of Hoffman LaRoche in Nutley, NJ, provided the initial secretarial and organizational support services critical to the formation and growth of the new organization.

The first Annual Scientific Meeting of APS was held at the Town and Country Hotel in San Diego, September 9-10, 1979, and attended by 275 individuals--a great success then for this young organization.

David Mayer was the Program Committee Chair. The second Annual Scientific Meeting in New York City in 1980 attracted over 400 persons. There was no meeting in 1981 because it was the year of the Third IASP World Congress. However, the rapid growth of APS, both in terms of membership and annual meeting attendance, has been maintained.

This very brief historical note is a tribute to both the founding members for their foresight and the current membership for so greatly nourishing our goals and permitting such energetic, healthy, and rapid growth.

Visit the John C. Liebeskind History of Pain Collection, UCLA.

To learn more about the history of pain research and therapy, visit the John C. Liebeskind History of Pain Collection at the UCLA Louise. M. Darling Biomedical Library http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/biomed/his/

This growing collection includes archival records of major pain organizations, personal papers of selected leaders in the pain field, oral histories with pain researchers, clinicians, and organization leaders and videotaped group interviews. The collection has been named in honor of Dr. John C. Liebeskind, a leader in pain research, Professor of Psychology at UCLA and a former president of the American Pain Society, who died on September 8, 1997. Dr. Liebeskind's oral history interviews with pioneers in the pain field constituted the first sparks of inspiration for this growing collection.