Descripción del proyecto
Una nueva técnica eficaz para el alivio del dolor
El dolor es una señal de advertencia fundamental, un signo de que es posible que algo no vaya bien. Más del 10 % de los adultos sufren dolor crónico o persistente que no puede ser aliviado pese a la administración de medicación y tratamiento. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos PainPersist propone un enfoque radicalmente nuevo y llevará a cabo estudios experimentales sobre el desarrollo precoz de la persistencia del dolor. Diseñará intervenciones psicológicas frente a las expectativas negativas, el control y la recompensa en estudios de dolor a largo plazo. Basándose en modos neurobiológicos modernos como la resonancia magnética (RM), PainPersist investigará los mecanismos de los tratamientos que podrían prevenir el desarrollo de dolor persistente. Se desarrollará un dispositivo innovador de evaluación del dolor que permitirá a los usuarios aumentar el control percibido sobre el dolor y aliviar el sufrimiento.
Objetivo
Persistent or chronic pain is a key medical and societal problem. In the last decades, biomedical research has undertaken enormous efforts to develop treatments for persistent pain, but the results have been disappointing. This project proposes a radical shift, namely to target the early development of pain persistence and to investigate psychological interventions directed at negative expectations, control and reward in experimental long-term pain studies. A methodological work package will develop novel tools, such as MR spectroscopy of the spinal cord, to track metabolic changes related to persistent pain, and to identify the mechanisms of the proposed interventions. All studies are guided by an integrative model outlining how psychological factors, such as negative expectations and loss of control, can affect the development of pain persistence, and more importantly, how to counteract this process. We will, for example, augment the perception of pain decreases by expectations or use reward manipulations to reinstantiate the effectiveness of the pain modulatory system. Finally, the model proposes that the inability to control pain leads to a state of helplessness. Consequently, the role of helplessness will be investigated and we will test interventions with the goal to allow subjects to regain control over their pain. This will be possible, through the development of a novel pain assessment device, which can be used to detect spontaneous pain decreases and prompt the subject to perform an action (i.e. self-administer a putative treatment). Through the illusion of control, subjects perceive that their action is causal for the pain relief, even though it is actually pain reductions that trigger their action. In the future, this will also allow treatment of patients in which pain is already persistent, and allow them to regain perceived control over, and hence reduce, their pain.
Ámbito científico
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Régimen de financiación
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitución de acogida
20251 Hamburg
Alemania