224 BULLETIN

Cancer Center. He discussed the use of adjuvant an- algesics in the management of cancer pain. Later in the year, successive meetings will be devoted to the issue of pain and sports medicine, to case discus- sions, and to the annual research forum. This will be the third year for the research forum, which is an innovative session at which members of the Eastern Pain Association are invited to give a brief platform presentation devoted to recent research.

The educational program is the most important ac- tivity of the Eastern Pain Association. The members are very grateful for the creativity and hard work of those who organize the program for the upcoming year. A full meeting schedule can be obtained from B. Berthold Wolff, PhD, DipPsych, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Meetings are open to all inter- ested parties.

Russell K. Portenoy

Midwest Pain Society, Inc.

The annual meeting of the Midwest Pain Society (MPS) took place on April 24-25 at the Swissotel in Chicago. The society has a record membership ap- proaching 300 members and has strong representa- tion from 13 physician and 12 allied professional spe- cialties. This meeting is consistently exceptional. There is a high level of interest and participation from the membership.

E. Richard Blonsky, MD, the program chairman, compiled a top-notch program with recognized speakers addressing recent advances in reflex sym- pathetic dystrophy (RSD), sympathetically main- tained pain, and differential diagnoses. Relevant clin- ical cases were presented and discussed. The basic pathophysiology of RSD was the subject of a presen- tation by Gary Bennett, PhD. The industrial commis- sioner of Illinois discussed the “Crisis in Worker Compensation Programs,” and there also was exten- sive discussion of and audience interest in “Acute Sports and Industrial Injuries,” “Cancer Pain,” and “Issues in Pain Medicine.” A multidisciplinary panel presented views on the indications, role, and compli- cations of epidural steroids, and crosscultural stud- ies of low back pain patients. John L. Reeves II, PhD, president of the American Pain Society, discussed “Psychological Assessment in Chronic Pain.”

Dana Simon, MD, was the outgoing president, and Matt Monsein, MD, was installed as president, while Peter J. Vicente, PhD, was voted president-elect of the society.

Dana Simon

New England Pain Association

The New England Pain Association (NEPA) is the re- gional APS group for the New England states. NEPA has approximately 200 members and an active professional and educational program.

This year’s speaker series began with the NEPA Kasdon Memorial Lecture on “Mechanisms of Sym- pathetically Maintained Pain” by James Campbell, MD. The meeting was cosponsored by Allan Ropper, MD, and the neurology service at St. Elizabeth’s Hos- pital in Boston. This was followed by a weekend ski meeting on the subject of “Headache,” cosponsored by the Faulkner Hospital Graham Headache Center. In April, NEPA cosponsored a meeting of the Massa- chusetts Cancer Pain Initiative with the Massachu- setts division of the American Cancer Society, and in June, John L. Reeves II, PhD, gave a presidential address on the subject of “Psychological Assess- ment of Chronic Pain Patients,” cosponsored by the Arnold Pain Center at New England Deaconess Hos- pital.

At press time, NEPA planned to cosponsor a Sep- tember 11 meeting with the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital on the subject of “Visceral Pain” with Rob- ert Forman, PhD, Gerald F. Gebhart, PhD, and Glen Geisler, PhD, as invited speakers. NEPA planned to cosponsor a meeting on September 18 with Hartford Hospital in Connecticut entitled “Controversy in Pain Management 1992.” This meeting was organized by Anthony Bouckoms, MD, with keynote speaker Dan- iel B. Carr, MD. The final cosponsored meeting was set to take place October 10 at the Copley Hotel in Boston: a daylong meeting on “Use of Narcotics in Chronic Pain Patients,” organized by Raymond Ma- ciewicz, MD, and cosponsored by Spaulding Reha- bilitation Hospital, with invited speakers Tony Yaksh, PhD, Russell Portenoy, MD, and Jerome Shofferman, MD.

Raymond Maciewicz

Southern Pain Societv

The Southern Pain Society (SPS) was founded in 1985 under the leadership of Hubert Rosomoff, MD, DMedSc. Currently, there are more than 125 mem- bers in the l&state region of the society. SPS strives to address the concerns of all healthcare profession- als dedicated to the multidisciplinary treatment of chronic pain. Specifically, the society is committed to fostering the organization of pain management professionals, quality care for their patients, and eco-