Multifunctional nanozyme platforms in central nervous system therapies: from rational design to translational medicine.

Non-communicable diseases, like chronic pain, are among the greatest contributors to disability worldwide. More than half of Canadians seeking health care present with pain, yet pain remains “everyone’s and no one’s problem” in clinical practice. Although people living with pain receive care across multiple disciplines and care settings, pain management often requires coordination across providers, which can contribute to fragmented care and challenges in establishing clear responsibility for ongoing support. Effective pain care requires a truly multidisciplinary approach in which healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, and more, collaborate to provide comprehensive and interdisciplinary care. Strengthening education on interprofessional pain management, clarifying scopes of practice, and defining shared roles are essential for reducing fragmented care and promoting effective teamwork. Chronic pain, in particular, is one of the most common concerns in primary care, yet both healthcare professionals and patients consistently report dissatisfaction with training in pain management and with the quality of pain care itself. For the one in five Canadians living with chronic pain, the first point of contact is typically a primary care professional, who is often insufficiently trained in pain assessment and management. These early encounters significantly shape patients’ care trajectories and influence long-term outcomes. Identifying and addressing pain, or the risk of chronic pain, early in the care journey can reduce individual suffering and lower long-term healthcare costs. Those living with chronic pain often feel that the realities of how pain affects their lives and care experiences are not easily communicated or adequately recognized by healthcare professionals. The recently revised definition of pain by the International Association for the Study of Pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage” highlights the subjective nature of pain. Pain’s invisible and deeply subjective nature challenges the traditional paradigms that rely on objective indicators. Because pain is ultimately defined by what individuals report, effective care hinges on communication: patients need to find ways to express their experiences, while healthcare professionals should be equipped to ask meaningful questions, validate patients’ perspectives, support adaptive reappraisal when appropriate, and interpret these accounts through a biopsychosocial lens. Indeed, communication may also influence how individuals make sense of and respond to pain, shaping coping processes, self-efficacy, and treatment engagement through supportive reappraisal and shared understanding. Overall, communication represents a persistent barrier to delivering effective care for chronic pain. This communication challenge becomes even more pronounced for women, immigrants, and people with lower socioeconomic status, who often encounter systemic inequities that restrict access to appropriate pain care. Despite extensive research highlights the biopsychosocial dimensions of pain and the central role of therapeutic relationships, many people living with chronic pain continue to face interactions shaped by misunderstanding, minimization, or disbelief. Such experiences reveal complex structural and cultural barriers within healthcare settings, where subjective accounts are frequently overshadowed by biomedical expectations for measurable evidence. These dynamics reinforce stigma and inequities and ultimately perpetuate injustice in pain care. Strengthening communication and foregrounding the lived perspectives of individuals with pain are therefore essential to delivering equitable, responsive, and patient-centered care.