Project Details
Projekt
Social buffering and biomarkers in two primary chronic pain disorders
Subject Area
Molecular and Cellular Neurology and Neuropathology
Clinical Neurology; Neurosurgery and Neuroradiology
Clinical Neurology; Neurosurgery and Neuroradiology
Term
since 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426503586
In the first funding period we successfully identified types of social support that reduce chronic pain intensity in patients’ every-day lives. Based on the Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) approach developed in the first funding period, the second funding period will focus on developing targeted digital interventions in every-day life (Ecological Momentary Interventions (EMI) for two chronic pain conditions. In more detail, our project will focus on complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), i.e., the patient group investigated with EMA in the first funding period, and fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), using our long-term cohort of FMS patients that show varying symptom trajectories ranging from pain worsening to resolution. In WP 1 and 2 we will establish and validate EMI for CRPS and FMS. We hypothesize that social contact modulates pain intensity via top-down control of nociceptor excitability, engaging the autonomic nervous system, hormones and inflammatory mediators. To test this assumption, individual effects of the social intervention will be linked to systemic and peripheral changes, nociceptor excitability (using microneurography), and pain resolution in CRPS and FMS. Our findings will elucidate top-down social modulation effects on chronic pain resolution or persistence.
DFG Programme
Clinical Research Units
