Pain Working Group
The pain working group is a monthly meeting in which CHOIR researchers and collaborators, interested in acute and chronic pain research discuss areas of intellectual inquiry. The group is led by Drs. Ana-Maria Vranceanu and senior collaborator and eminent pain researcher Dr. Frank Keefe of Duke University.
The mission of the pain working group is to provide a forum for deep thinking on topics that are of critical importance to ensuring we are conducting rigorous, clinically relevant research. Each week a presenter gives a brief overview of the topic and then each group member provides feedback.
Previous topics include:
Psychological mechanisms of virtual reality
Selecting outcome measures for psychosocial interventions
How changes in marital adjustment relate to pain outcomes
Do patients understand, like, and use “skills”?
LEADERSHIP
Members
DR. KATE MCDERMOTT, PHD
Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in Clinical Psychology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Area of research: Mind-body interventions for chronic pain. Treating negative emotionality (e.g., anxiety, PTSD) in the context of chronic pain with a focus on exposure techniques.
Pain research questions: 1) How can we improve emotional processing in the context of chronic pain? 2) How can we reduce nervous system over-activation underlying PTSD and chronic pain?
Current grant funding: NCCIH K23: Pain Disengagement Training: A self-directed intervention for pain catastrophizing
DR. VICTORIA GRUNBERG, PHD
Position: Member of the Faculty, Harvard Medical School; Staff Psychologist, Massachusetts General Hospital
Area of research: Family adjustment to stressful reproductive life events and critical care illness
Pain research questions: interventions for endometriosis-associated pain, Dyadic/family-based chronic pain interventions
Current grant funding: K23 from NICHD: Resilient Families (R-FAM): A dyadic resiliency intervention for parents with babies in neonatal intensive care
DR. JONATHAN GREENBERG, PHD
Position: Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; Research Staff Psychologist, MGH
Area of research: Developing and testing mind-body interventions for adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain, Developing and testing mind-body interventions for adults with chronic orofacial pain, Leveraging mind-body skills to optimize recovery after concussion
Current grant funding: K23/NCCIH: Live video mind-body treatment to prevent persistent symptoms following mTBI (PI; 1K23AT01065301A1), R01/NCCIH: Improving multimodal physical function in adults with heterogeneous chronic pain; Multi-site feasibility RCT (MPI; 1R01AT012069-01
DR. RYAN MACE, PHD
Position: Staff Psychologist, Assistant Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Area of Research: Healthy aging, dementia prevention, behavior change, digital health, mind-body and lifestyle intervention development, statistics
Pain research questions: How do mindfulness-based interventions influence the progression from subacute to persistent pain How can technology enhance the delivery and assessment of pain intervention
Current grant funding: NIA K23 Award: My Healthy Brain: a mindfulness-based lifestyle intervention to modify early risk of dementia in older adults, NIH LRP Award: Developing technology-enhanced interventions to promote adherence to healthy lifestyles, The Cathedral Fund Award: Physical and psychological measures of pain in acute orthopedic injuries: use of at-home virtual reality. NIA R01 (Co-I): Addressing the chronic pain-early cognitive decline comorbidity among older adults; The Active Brains study, PCORI (Co-I): Comorbidity of chronic pain and early cognitive decline among older, community-based Black adults: Comparative effectiveness of the Active Brains (AB) vs Active Living Every Day (ALED) interventions, NIA P30 (Co-I Research and Education Component): Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Resource Center for Minority Aging and Behavioral Health Research (MA-RCMAR)
DR. KATE JOCHIMSEN, PHD, ATC
Position: Researcher, Member of the Faculty, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Area of research: Improving clinical outcomes and well-being for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain through the development of novel rehabilitation interventions.
Pain research questions: 1) What are the inciting factors in the development of hip-related pain (i.e., why do some people with these hip morphologies develop pain and others do not?) 2) How does psychological response to pain impact joint loading and movement?
Current grant funding: NCCIH K23: Development and feasibility of a mind-body intervention to improve physical activity for patients with chronic hip pain
DR. TONY PHAM, MD, MScGH
Position: Instructor, MGH, HMS
Area of Research: mind-body interventions, chronic pain, underserved populations
Pain research questions: Can we address chronic pain disparities in the older Black community by culturally tailoring mind-body interventions?
Current grant funding: NCCIH K23 Award (K23AT012363) and The Ki Sub Joung Innovative Junior Faculty Pilot Award in Aging and Palliative Care: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for the chronic pain-depression co-morbidity among older Black individuals in the community, Resource Center for Minority Aging Research Scholar (P30AG083196): Culturally Adapting mindfulness based cognitive therapy for Black older adults with comorbid early cognitive decline and chronic pain; The Feeling of Being study
DR. LISA LAROWE, PHD
Position: Instructor in Investigation, Division of Palliative Care & Geriatric Medicine and Mongan Institute Center for Aging and Serious Illness, Massachusetts General Hospital; Instructor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Area of Research: chronic pain management in older adults
Pain research questions: I am interested in (1) understanding the relationships between pain and health-related behaviors (e.g., substance use, physical activity) in aging adults, and (2) developing behavioral interventions to improve chronic pain management in this population.
Current grant funding: US Deprescribing Network Pilot Award: Evaluating Substance Use-Related Outcomes in Opioid Deprescribing among Older Adults with Chronic Pain: A Mixed Methods Study
DR. JULIA HOOKER, PHD
Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at MGH/HMS
Area of research: Mind-body intervention development for individuals with chronic pain, with a particular interest in emergency department settings.
Pain research questions: 1) Can psychosocial interventions for chronic pain be implemented in acute care settings? 2) How can we best match specific mind-body skills for chronic pain to individual patients based on pain-related psychosocial characteristics?
Current grant funding: T32 Postdoctoral Fellow in the MGH/HMS Bridging the Science-to-Service Gap program (T32 AG081327)
JULIE BREWER, BA
Position: Graduate Student
Area of research: Mind-body intervention development for individuals with chronic pain, with a particular interest in emergency department settings.
Pain research questions: 1) Can psychosocial interventions for chronic pain be implemented in acute care settings? 2) How can we best match specific mind-body skills for chronic pain to individual patients based on pain-related psychosocial characteristics?
Current grant funding: N/A
DR. CHRISTINE SIEBERG, PHD, EDM
Position: Associate Professor; Staff Psychologist at MGH/HMS
Area of research: Broadly my research is interdisciplinary, translational pain science focused on elucidating the complex biopsychosocial mechanisms contributing to chronic pain across the lifespan. A major focus of my research is to identify people (children-adults) who demonstrate amplified central nervous system processing of pain-related information and who are at elevated risk for adverse outcomes and reduced benefits of pain-reducing treatment. My funding has largely been in the area of chronic postsurgical pain as well as in endometriosis-associated pain. I am also interested in designing and implementing mechanistic clinical trials in order to better understand the mechanisms of action of behavioral pain treatment, which hopefully can result in more personalized patient care.
Pain research questions: I am interested in developing large, multicenter mechanistic clinical trials investigating the neurological and psychosocial mechanisms of change for behavioral pain interventions. There is also a need for a paradigm shift in how we treat, manage, and perceive chronic pain through the lifespan, especially in historically unrepresented populations, given significant issues of racism, gender-based discrimination, and stigma. I am interested in exploring this further in my research.
Current grant funding: R35 MIRA Award from NIGMS: Chronic postsurgical pain across the lifespan: Brain state and treatment
First Annual Pain School Wednesday June 5, 2024 at MGH
Psychosocial and Behavioral Interventions for People Having Persistent Pain: Issues We Struggle With and Related Opportunities
Francis Keefe, Ana Maria Vranceanu, Tamara Somers
Attendees: Jafar Bahkshaie, Julie Brewer, Katherine Gnall, Jonathan Greenberg, Vicky Grunberg, Julia Hooker, Francis Keefe, Lisa LaRowe, Ryan Mace, Kate McDermott, Tony Pham, Natalia Santiago-Giraldo, Christine Sieberg, Tammy Sommers, Claire Szapary, Christine Ritchie, Ana-Maria Vranceanu, Ziyan Wu
Presentations/Discussions:
Maintaining treatment gains – Frank Keefe
Dosing and delivery modality choices – Tammy Somers
Engaging providers and families to improve outcomes in pain clinical trials – Ana-Maria Vranceanu
Cultural tailoring of intervention and comparator –– Tony Pham
Trauma and pain: Intervention development or implementation – Kate McDermott
Monitoring and quantifying adherence in pain trials – Jonathan Greenberg
Fall risk in activity interventions for older adults –– Ryan Mace