Understanding functional pain using behavioural techniques and neuroimaging in patients and controls

The major aim of my lab is to provide insights into the mechanisms behind 'functional pain'. Very broadly, functional pain is pain that cannot be explained by disease or injury and is defined by symptom report. Prevalent functional disorders include fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and nonspecific low back pain. These disorders are common in the general population with estimates of chronic sufferers ranging from 5-20%. Functional pain reduces quality of life, creates considerable health care costs, decreases work-related productivity and may increase mortality. Treatment is difficult, with doctors and patients often reaching for multiple treatments, used sequentially or in combination, to achieve pain relief. Unfortunately, even this strategy often results in failure. Often, doctors are left frustrated and patients dissatisfied with chronic, unremitting symptoms. Currently we are trying to understand functional pain using qualitative, behavioural and neuroimaging techniques. We have a database of interviews and questionnaire data collected with functional pain patients that is available for further investigation. In the lab, we have modelled the symptoms of functional pain using hypnosis, emotional priming, the rubber arm illusion and empathic suggestion. We are also exploring whether descending analgesia is dysfunctional in patients with fibromyalgia or non-specific low back pain. PhD projects in this area will develop our understanding of functional pain using these techniques both in the lab and in the field and by extending the investigations for use with fMRI.