For medical researchers, defining pain has always been a challenge because there are no formal classifications that can help doctors make a confident diagnosis. In 2012, the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), therefore, reached out to the World Health Organization (WHO), which maintains the authoritative International Classification of Diseases (ICD), to explore adding an accurate taxonomy of pain to the guide’s next edition.
To execute the job done efficiently, an IASP task force comprising stakeholders from several partner organizations was formed. They were given the responsibility of developing an authoritative taxonomy. The task force, with more or less 20 dedicated participants, subsequently, established general pain categories such as cancer pain, chronic primary pain, and musculoskeletal pain.
Though the classifications have not been formally implemented in the ICD, clinicians in Rwanda, Norway, Thailand, and Japan have already put the classifications into use. What's more, some hospital systems are using the classifications, as they believe it is superior to what they are working with now.
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