Brian Dwyer and the St. Vincent's Pain Clinic 1962 to 1989

Abstract

Brian Dwyer was the Director of the Department of Anaesthetics at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney from 1955 to 1985. He developed a major interest in the management of intractable pain and was most impressed by the multidisciplinary pain clinic which was commissioned at the University of Washington in Seattle by John Bonica in 1960. In August 1962, Dr Dwyer established the first pain clinic in Australia, based on the Seattle model. Initially the St. Vincent's Pain Clinic specialized in the management of pain of malignant origin but in the 1970s and 1980s the work expanded to include the treatment of pain arising from a variety of benign conditions. The great strengths of the Pain Clinic were its multidisciplinary approach to pain problems and the realisation of the importance of psychological factors in the persistence of pain. As a result of his work, Brian Dwyer received international recognition as a pioneer in the field of chronic pain management and the St. Vincent's Pain Clinic served as a model for the establishment of similar units, both in Australia and overseas. Brian Dwyer was the first chairman of the Clinic and remained in that position until his retirement in 1989.