Ronald Melzack
Ronald Melzack | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | December 22, 2019 Montreal, Quebec, Canada | (aged 90)
Nationality | Canadian |
Alma mater | McGill University |
Occupation(s) | Psychologist, Professor |
Ronald Melzack
Melzack has received numerous honors including
Early life
Melzack was born in Montreal, the son of Joseph Melzack, who worked in a clothing factory and opened a second-hand bookstore. He grew up in a working-class Jewish neighborhood.[4] Due to financial constraint, Ron was the only sibling in his family to attend university. His brothers worked in the family bookstore known as "Classic Bookshops" which became a successful chain. He received his M.Sc. from McGill in 1951 and his Ph.D. from McGill in 1954. Donald O. Hebb was Melzack's research advisor at university during the time he worked on his doctoral thesis. Hebb was doing experiments with dogs who had not been normally socialized and Melzack became interested in their unusual response to pain when they would stick their nose in a flame repeatedly.[5] Melzack completed his post-doc at the University of Oregon.[6]
Career
After studying for his Ph.D. in 1954 with Hebb at McGill University in Montreal, he began to work with patients who suffered from "phantom limb" pain — people who feel pain in an arm or leg that has been removed. He found that pain often has little survival value, and some pains are entirely out of proportion to the degree of tissue damage, sometimes continuing long after injured tissues have healed. While still a postdoctoral student, Melzack began collecting "pain words" and putting them into classes that belonged together, like "hot," "burning," "scalding," and "searing".
In 1975, this pursuit led to the development of the
In 1965 at
Melzack's recent research at McGill indicates that there are two types of pain, transmitted by two separate sets of pain-signaling pathways in the central nervous system. Sudden, short-term pain, such as the pain of cutting a finger, is transmitted by a group of pathways that Melzack calls the "lateral" system, because they pass through the
In 1974, Melzack co-founded the first pain clinic in Canada at the Montreal General Hospital with Dr. Joseph Stratford (then Chief of Neurosurgery at the hospital and who was the medical director of the pain clinic). Melzack served as Research Director from 1974 to 2000. The clinic became part of the McGill University Health Centre which has grown to be one of the best organized centres for pain treatment in the world. Melzack also supervised graduate students at McGill, one of whom —John O'Keefe— would later go on to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014.
Recognition
Melzack was a founding member of the
He received the Prix du Québec for research in pure and applied science (1994), recognizing him as a laureate of the highest honor for a scientist in his home province.
References
- ^ "Remembering the life of Ronald Melzack 1929 - 2019". montrealgazette.remembering.ca. Retrieved Jan 8, 2021.
- ^ Carey, Benedict (Jan 12, 2020). "Ronald Melzack, Cartographer of Pain, Is Dead at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved Jan 8, 2021.
- ^ "Melzack, Stanovich win Grawemeyer awards". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
- ^ Gliserman, Michael (Nov 18, 2002). "Mastering the Pain". Maisonneuve. Retrieved Jan 8, 2021.
- ^ a b c "Dr. Ronald Melzack | www.cdnmedhall.org". Archived from the original on 2013-12-04. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
- ^ "The king of (understanding) pain". reporter.mcgill.ca. 17 November 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- S2CID 20562841.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- PMID 5320816.
- PMID 11780656.
- ^ a b "Membre honoraire". Réseau québécois de recherche sur la douleur. Retrieved Jan 8, 2021.
- ^ "The King of (Understanding) Pain: Q&A with Ronald Melzack : headway". publications.mcgill.ca. Archived from the original on 2012-05-09.
- ^ "Scientist who helps explain pain wins Grawemeyer Award – Grawemeyer Awards". Retrieved Jan 8, 2021.
- ^ "International Association for the Study of Pain | Welcome to IASP". Archived from the original on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
- ^ Melzack R (2011). Foreword: Relief of pain and suffering endured by millions of people. e-News for Somatosensory Rehabilitation, 9(1),5 (one page).[2]
Sources
- The original version of this article was based on an article [3] from science.ca.
- Great Canadian Psychology Website - Ronald Melzack Biography