Pain is a huge public health concern affecting millions of Americans and resulting in billions of dollars per year in direct and indirect healthcare costs, lost wages, and disability expenses. While much attention in the research literature is paid to chronic pain in and of itself, its physical and psychosocial consequences, and its treatment, there are numerous chronic medical illnesses that have pain as an associated complication or symptom including cancer, pancreatitis, liver disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, sickle cell disease, renal disease, ulcerative colitis, and many others which may complicate its presentation, experience, quality, and available treatment. More work is needed to highlight the epidemiology, mechanisms, complications, and treatment options associated with pain that occurs in the context of various medical illnesses. We invite authors to submit original research and review articles that focus on the epidemiology and unique considerations with respect to mechanisms and treatment of pain occurring within the context of general medical illness. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Pain measurement in primary, secondary, and/or tertiary medical specialty clinics
• Epidemiology of pain within specific medical patient populations
• Medical disease-specific mechanisms of pain (chronic and acute)
• Treatment of pain within the context of chronic medical illness
• Impact of pain on quality of life among patients with chronic medical illness
• Disease-specific interactions between pain and psychosocial concomitants among medically ill patients

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/prt/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: