Pain Management and Opioid Use
Pain Management and Opioid Use is a research topic within Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine. Science Explorer counts 29k research works in it since 1950. 21.5% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.
This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics related to pain management, with a focus on challenges in treating postoperative pain, cancer-related pain, and persistent pain in elderly patients. It also explores the genetic basis for individual variations in pain perception and the use of opioid analgesics. The papers discuss the prevalence of pain, assessment tools, and the impact of pain management on quality of life.
- Pain Management
- Cancer Pain
- Opioid Analgesics
- Elderly Patients
- Genetic Variability
- Postoperative Pain
- Neurolytic Block
- Pain Assessment Tools
- Patient-Controlled Analgesia
- Quality of Life
- Research works
- 29k fractional, since 1950
- In the world top 10%
- 6.3k per year above
- Top-10% rate
- 21.5% share of its works in the world top 10%
- Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
- +33% the tick is no change
This ranks research output and citation impact. It says nothing about the quality of diagnosis, treatment or care.
Which countries lead Pain Management and Opioid Use research?
By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.9k and 426 works in 2022–2025).
By volume, 2022–2025
- 1 United States 1.9k works
- 2 China 426 works
- 3 United Kingdom 273 works
- 4 India 263 works
- 5 Canada 222 works
- 6 Australia 188 works
- 7 Germany 168 works
- 8 Türkiye 158 works
- 9 Japan 150 works
- 10 Spain 134 works
How concentrated that is
The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.
Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.
Which institutions lead Pain Management and Opioid Use research?
By volume in 2022–2025, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center publishes the most Pain Management and Opioid Use research, followed by Harvard University and Yale University.
By volume, 2022–2025
- 1 The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer CenterUnited States 29 works
- 2 Harvard UniversityUnited States 25 works
- 3 Yale UniversityUnited States 22 works
- 4 All India Institute of Medical SciencesIndia 20 works
- 5 University of TorontoCanada 20 works
- 6 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 20 works
- 7 University of MichiganUnited States 20 works
- 8 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 20 works
- 9 University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 19 works
- 10 University of FloridaUnited States 19 works
Who are the leading researchers in Pain Management and Opioid Use?
The most-cited researchers publishing on Pain Management and Opioid Use include Roger Chou, Louisa Degenhardt and George Davey Smith.
- 1 Roger Chou United States 14k citations
- 2 Louisa Degenhardt Australia 5.7k citations
- 3 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 4.9k citations
- 4 Fiona Blyth Australia 2.8k citations
- 5 M. Pappagallo United Kingdom 2.4k citations
Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.
Where is Pain Management and Opioid Use research done?
The largest centres of Pain Management and Opioid Use research in 2022–2025 are New York (United States), Boston (United States), London (United Kingdom) and Toronto (Canada).
Largest cities, 2022–2025
- 1 New York United States 81 works
- 2 Boston United States 80 works
- 3 London United Kingdom 73 works
- 4 Toronto Canada 63 works
- 5 Philadelphia United States 55 works
- 6 Baltimore United States 54 works
- 7 Beijing China 53 works
- 8 Houston United States 51 works
- 9 Seoul South Korea 50 works
- 10 Istanbul Türkiye 49 works
Where is the best place to study Pain Management and Opioid Use?
Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, University of California, San Francisco and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.
One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.
| # | University | Score | Top 10% | Specialisation | Works | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvard UniversityUnited States | 59.4 | 26.1% | 3.7× | 25 | +94.0% |
| 2 | University of California, San FranciscoUnited States | 51.1 | 23.1% | 5.7× | 19 | +42.3% |
| 3 | The University of Texas Medical Branch at GalvestonUnited States | 48.6 | 11.6% | 10.0× | 9 | +224.1% |
| 4 | Duke UniversityUnited States | 47.6 | 20.6% | 3.8× | 14 | +202.9% |
| 5 | Yale UniversityUnited States | 47.4 | 21.2% | 4.2× | 22 | +39.2% |
| 6 | University of MichiganUnited States | 45.3 | 25.6% | 2.7× | 20 | +55.2% |
| 7 | University of TorontoCanada | 44.2 | 21.9% | 2.6× | 20 | +16.4% |
| 8 | All India Institute of Medical SciencesIndia | 43.9 | 16.7% | 6.2× | 20 | +43.4% |
| 9 | Monash UniversityAustralia | 43.5 | 21.8% | 3.0× | 13 | +75.1% |
| 10 | Medical University of South CarolinaUnited States | 43.3 | 17.5% | 8.7× | 11 | +53.7% |
Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.
Is Pain Management and Opioid Use research growing?
Output in 2018–2022 was 33% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Pain Management and Opioid Use.
The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.
Which topics inside it are moving
Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.