Chronic pain is a complex phenomenon, which continues to remain undertreated in the majority of affected patients thus representing a significant unmet medical need, but the development of cellular, subcellular, and molecular methods of approaching this epidemic of pain shows great promise. In Analgesia: Methods and Protocols, experts in the field present thorough coverage of molecular analgesia research methods from target discovery through target validation and clinical testing to tolerance and dependence, with extensive chapters on emerging receptor classes as targets for analgesic drugs and innovative analgesic strategies. As a volume in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology™ series, the chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible protocols, and notes sections with tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Comprehensive and essential, Analgesia: Methods and Protocols promises to aid and enrich the research of all those scientists and clinicians who are interested in what the increasingly molecular future has in store for analgesia research, from the molecular research bench through the animal laboratory to the bedside.