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Call for papers - Advances in pediatric pain research and management

Guest Editors

Christina Liossi, DPsych, University of Southampton, UK
Alessandro Vittori, MD, PhD, Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù IRCCS, Italy 

Submission Status: Open   |   Submission Deadline: 31 July 2025


BMC Pediatrics is calling for submissions on our Collection "Advances in pediatric pain research and management." 
This collection aims to highlight novel research that bridges current gaps in pediatric pain research and care, covering various aspects of pain assessment, treatment, and management.
 
Effective pediatric pain management in youth is crucial as it significantly impacts patients’ immediate well-being and long-term quality of life. Improperly managed pain in these vulnerable age groups can result in multiple issues, including delays in physical and cognitive development, chronic pain, prolonged emotional distress, and increased risks of medication dependency.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Christina Liossi, DPsych, University of Southampton, UK

Prof Christina Liossi is a pediatric psychologist and one of the world's leading experts in pediatric pain. She has worked as both an academic and clinician in the UK and abroad, caring for children with various chronic medical conditions- including cancer, cystic fibrosis, chronic kidney disease, epidermolysis bullosa, and sickle cell disease. Prof Liossi has contributed to national and international evidence-based guidelines on acute and chronic pediatric pain, pain management in epidermolysis bullosa, and sedation in children. Her randomized controlled clinical trials have been instrumental in establishing hypnosis as an evidence-based intervention for children with cancer.

Alessandro Vittori, MD, PhD, Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù IRCCS, Italy

Dr Alessandro Vittori is a pediatric anesthesiologist at Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù IRCCS in Rome. Dr Vittori mainly deals with pain, in all its aspects: management, perioperative, and chronic.
He is active within SIAARTI, the Italian society of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Therapy, as a member of the group's Board of study on Chronic Pain. Dr Vittori trained at the Sapienza University of Rome as an anesthesiologist and obtained his PhD from the University of L'Aquila.

About the Collection

 BMC Pediatrics is calling for submissions on our Collection "Advances in pediatric pain research and management." 
Effective pediatric pain management in youth is crucial as it significantly impacts patients’ immediate well-being and long-term quality of life. Improperly managed pain in these vulnerable age groups can result in multiple issues, including delays in physical and cognitive development, chronic pain, prolonged emotional distress, and increased risks of medication dependency.

BMC Pediatrics is launching this collection, aiming to highlight novel research that bridges current gaps in pediatric pain research and care, covering various aspects of pain assessment, treatment, and management.

Potential topics of interest include (but are not limited to): 

  • New insights into factors associated with pain development in youth
  • Development of novel pain characterization and assessment tools for different pediatric age groups
  • Innovative pharmacological and non-pharmacological pain management strategies
  • Psychological and behavioral interventions for managing pain in various settings 
  • Advances in chronic pain self-management in childhood and adolescence
  • Policy and ethical considerations in pediatric pain research and practice 
  • Perioperative pain management in pediatric populations


Image credit: © irena_geo / Stock.adobe.com

  1. In the history of Neonatology, decades ago pain has been little studied because it was believed that newborns didn’t have the capacity to experience pain. Nowadays, there is enough evidence for the existence o...

    Authors: Inmaculada García-Valdivieso, Jorge Sánchez-Infante, Pablo Pando Cerra, Benito Yáñez-Araque, Sonsoles Hernández-Iglesias, Fernando Peña Cambón, Celia Álvarez-Bueno, Abel Checa Peñalver, Juan Manuel Pérez-Pozuelo and Sagrario Gómez-Cantarino
    Citation: BMC Pediatrics 2025 25:243
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Multiple studies have shown that children with developmental disabilities (CDD) often live with unrecognized and untreated pain, consume inadequate diet and have inadequate levels of physical activity. This st...

    Authors: Jelena Međaković, Antonia Čivljak, Tatjana Zorčec, Vesna Vučić, Danijela Ristić-Medić, Aleksandra Veselinović, Marta Čivljak and Livia Puljak
    Citation: BMC Pediatrics 2024 24:819
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Advances in pediatric pain research and management" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.