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Open Access
A Significant Voice in Pain Research Björn Gerdle in Memoriam (1953–2024)
Published/Copyright:
June 10, 2024
Björn Gerdle, Professor Emeritus and longtime Director of the Pain and Rehabilitation Centre in Linköping, Sweden, has suddenly passed away at the age of 70.
Björn’s career started in Umeå in Northern Sweden, where he graduated as a physician in 1980 and defended his PhD in 1985. He became a specialist physician in rehabilitation medicine in 1991 and pain management in 1997. He moved to Linköping in 1992 as a new university professor of rehabilitation medicine. A few years later, he took charge of the newly established Pain and Rehabilitation Center, which, during the early 2000s, developed into a comprehensive pain center where multidisciplinary healthcare went hand in hand with research and teaching.
Björn held several key positions in academia and public healthcare in Linköping for more than three decades. Uniting these two areas was very important to him. Björn was a clear and structured leader, forward-thinking and visionary, but also a “doer” who let actions speak louder than words. Early on, he caught on to the idea of biomarkers being essential for a better understanding of chronic pain and became a pioneer in omics in chronic pain research. Initially, this issue was controversial, but it rapidly gained wide acceptance within the pain research community. For example, “biomarker” was a recurring term at the European Pain Federation conference in Budapest in 2023 – something that was not at all the case a decade ago when Björn, with support from the IngaBritt and Arne Lundberg Research Foundation, founded the PAINOMICS® laboratory at Linköping University. The laboratory has since expanded with support from the university and pain clinic, which makes it possible to continue Björn’s research legacy of chronic pain biomarkers.
Björn was also a proponent of multidisciplinary rehabilitation in chronic pain and was a driving force in the support of many professions participating in pain care. Evidence-based medicine was principal to him, and the clinical units he headed were required to provide evidence-based interventions. The research was funded by, among others, the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life, and Welfare.
At the national level, Björn was a significant figure in pain care, for example, in the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain Rehabilitation (SQRP), and participated in various national inquiries concerning the improvement of pain care in Sweden. As a member of SQRP’s steering board, Björn was a driving force in developing the SQRP-research network and promoting other clinical networks within SQRP. Björn’s emphasis on nurturing young researchers and the generosity with which he spread his knowledge among researchers and clinicians have left a profound and lasting mark in the field. Many of us have profited from his ability to lead projects forward – from research ideas to publications. Although Björn had an unparalleled, prolific scientific track record in chronic pain in Sweden, he was keen to remind us of the importance of not letting work dominate life but caring for and prioritizing our loved ones.
Our thoughts are on his wife, Britt, and his three children, with families and relatives. The funeral will take place in Klosterkyrkan, Lund, on June 12th.
Rest in peace.
Friends and colleagues,
Emmanuel Bäckryd, Associate Professor in Pain Medicine, Pain and Rehabilitation Center, and Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. E-mail: emmanuel.backryd@regionostergotland.se
Britt-Marie Stålnacke, Professor Emerita, Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Umeå university, Umeå, Sweden. E-mail: britt-marie.stalnacke@umu.se
Märta Segerdahl, Associate Professor, President of the Swedish College of Pain Medicine. E-mail: martasegerdahl@gmail.com
Mathilda Björk, Professor in occupational therapy, Pain and Rehabilitation Center, and Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. E-mail: mathilda.bjork@liu.se
Bijar Ghafouri, Professor in pain biochemistry, Pain and Rehabilitation Centre, Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. E-mail: bijar.ghafouri@liu.se
Marcelo Rivano Fischer, Associate Professor, Pain Rehabilitation Unit, Department of Neurosurgery and Pain Rehabilitation, Skånes University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden. E-mail: marcelo.rivanofischer@skane.se
Mads U Werner, Editor-in-Chief, Scandinavian Journal of Pain| Multidisciplinary Pain Center, Neuroscience Center Copenhagen University Hospitals, Denmark. E-mail: sjpainmw@gmail.com
Received: 2024-05-31
Accepted: 2024-05-31
Published Online: 2024-06-10
© 2024 the author(s), published by De Gruyter
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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BY 4.0
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial Comment
- From pain to relief: Exploring the consistency of exercise-induced hypoalgesia
- Christmas greetings 2024 from the Editor-in-Chief
- Original Articles
- The Scandinavian Society for the Study of Pain 2022 Postgraduate Course and Annual Scientific (SASP 2022) Meeting 12th to 14th October at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen
- Comparison of ultrasound-guided continuous erector spinae plane block versus continuous paravertebral block for postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing proximal femur surgeries
- Clinical Pain Researches
- The effect of tourniquet use on postoperative opioid consumption after ankle fracture surgery – a retrospective cohort study
- Changes in pain, daily occupations, lifestyle, and health following an occupational therapy lifestyle intervention: a secondary analysis from a feasibility study in patients with chronic high-impact pain
- Tonic cuff pressure pain sensitivity in chronic pain patients and its relation to self-reported physical activity
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- The Swedish version of the pain self-efficacy questionnaire short form, PSEQ-2SV: Cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation in a population of patients with musculoskeletal disorders
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- Neuropathic pain after surgery – A clinical validation study and assessment of accuracy measures of the 5-item NeuPPS scale
- Translation, contextual adaptation, and reliability of the Danish Concept of Pain Inventory (COPI-Adult (DK)) – A self-reported outcome measure
- Cosmetic surgery and associated chronic postsurgical pain: A cross-sectional study from Norway
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- Painful differences between different pain scale assessments: The outcome of assessed pain is a matter of the choices of scale and statistics
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- Sex moderates the association between quantitative sensory testing and acute and chronic pain after total knee/hip arthroplasty
- Tramadol-paracetamol for postoperative pain after spine surgery – A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study
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- Patient-reported pain, satisfaction, adverse effects, and deviations from ambulatory surgery pain medication
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- Dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the Finnish version of the pain catastrophizing scale in chronic low back pain
- To speak or not to speak? A secondary data analysis to further explore the context-insensitive avoidance scale
- Pain catastrophizing levels differentiate between common diseases with pain: HIV, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome, and breast cancer survivors
- Prevalence of substance use disorder diagnoses in patients with chronic pain receiving reimbursed opioids: An epidemiological study of four Norwegian health registries
- Pain perception while listening to thrash heavy metal vs relaxing music at a heavy metal festival – the CoPainHell study – a factorial randomized non-blinded crossover trial
- Observational Studies
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- Patient characteristics in relation to opioid exposure in a chronic non-cancer pain population
- Topical Reviews
- Bridging the translational gap: adenosine as a modulator of neuropathic pain in preclinical models and humans
- What do we know about Indigenous Peoples with low back pain around the world? A topical review
- The “future” pain clinician: Competencies needed to provide psychologically informed care
- Systematic Reviews
- Pain management for persistent pain post radiotherapy in head and neck cancers: systematic review
- High-frequency, high-intensity transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation compared with opioids for pain relief after gynecological surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis
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- Noninvasive transcranial brain stimulation in central post-stroke pain: A systematic review
- Short Communications
- Are we missing the opioid consumption in low- and middle-income countries?
- Association between self-reported pain severity and characteristics of United States adults (age ≥50 years) who used opioids
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- Skin conductance algesimeter is unreliable during sudden perioperative temperature increases
- Original Experimental
- Confirmatory study of the usefulness of quantum molecular resonance and microdissectomy for the treatment of lumbar radiculopathy in a prospective cohort at 6 months follow-up
- Pain catastrophizing in the elderly: An experimental pain study
- Improving general practice management of patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain: Interdisciplinarity, coherence, and concerns
- Concurrent validity of dynamic bedside quantitative sensory testing paradigms in breast cancer survivors with persistent pain
- Transcranial direct current stimulation is more effective than pregabalin in controlling nociceptive and anxiety-like behaviors in a rat fibromyalgia-like model
- Paradox pain sensitivity using cuff pressure or algometer testing in patients with hemophilia
- Physical activity with person-centered guidance supported by a digital platform or with telephone follow-up for persons with chronic widespread pain: Health economic considerations along a randomized controlled trial
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- Revisiting opioid toxicity: Cellular effects of six commonly used opioids
- Letter to the Editor
- Post cholecystectomy pain syndrome: Letter to Editor
- Response to the Letter by Prof Bordoni
- Response – Reliability and measurement error of exercise-induced hypoalgesia
- Is the skin conductance algesimeter index influenced by temperature?
- Skin conductance algesimeter is unreliable during sudden perioperative temperature increase
- Corrigendum
- Corrigendum to “Chronic post-thoracotomy pain after lung cancer surgery: a prospective study of preoperative risk factors”
- Obituary
- A Significant Voice in Pain Research Björn Gerdle in Memoriam (1953–2024)
