The Center for Advancement in Managing Pain welcomes

Dr. Steve Kinsey and Dr. Natalie Shook!

Development of a new pathway to manage the clinical pain is a clinical chalenge. Drs. Bin Feng and Guoan Zheng professors in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, have recently received a $2,030,740 grant from the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to better understand the causes of chronic visceral pain in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) to characterize the sensory neural cell bodies in a cluster of neurons known as the dorsal root ganglion, or DRG. These neural clusters are responsible for transmitting sensory messages of pain and touch from skin, as well as inner abdominal organs including the colon and rectum. Drs. Feng and Zheng will quantify the topological distribution of pain receptors called mechanonociceptors. These neurons respond to intense pressure on the colorectum. This project will help to define the molecular properties of mechano- and silent nociceptors, specifically in the thoracolumbar and lumbosacral DRG.

UConn Today

10th Annual International Symposium of Ayurveda and Health will be held on September 25-26, 2020 at UCONN Health Center in Farmington, CT.

Topics/Subjects of Interest, Not Limited:
Pain: (mental or physical,) not limited to any particular field or type. Observation, diagnosis, treatment, management, alternative approaches and therapies; herbs, food and applied Sciences, Current developments (clinical and/or research papers), Emerging trends in Pain Therapy. Diseases of Interest: Cancer, GI, IBS, Acid Reflex, Joint pain (arthritis), Heart Disease, Pediatric variances and Psychosomatic diseases.

People who are interested to submit an abstract to facilitate networking need to send it to Dr. Amala Guha: aguha1@att.net

Abstract deadline: December 15, 2019

Flyer

The CAMP annual symposium on “Opioid Use Disorder and Chronic Pain Management: Innovations in Research and Practice” was held successfully at UConn, Student Union on Nov. 1st, 2019.

The symposium brought scholars from different universities to give a speech about pain and pain management. The conference director, Dr. Xiaomei Cong started the opening remarks. Then, Drs. Steve Kinsey from West Virginia University, Dr. Burel Goordin from University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. William Shaw from UConn Health, Dr. Susan Dorsey from University of Maryland, Dr. Raymond Dionne from UConn Health, Dr. Bin Feng from University of Connecticut, Dr. Luana Colloca from University of Maryland, Dr. Melissa Santos from Connecticut’s Children’s Medical Center, Dr. Debra Lyon from University of Florida and Dr. Natalie Shook from West Virginia University presented keynote speech on different aspects of pain and pain management.

At the end of the symposium, the poster session was held at the School of Nursing and students presented their research.

Center for Advancement in Managing Pain is pleased to announce the annual pain symposium on “Opioid Use Disorder and Chronic Pain Management Innovations in Research and Practice” which will be held on November 1st 2019 at UCONN Student Union Rm 331. We will have several internal and external pain experts speaking.

Please register here!

Registration is free for students and postdocs and $30 for faculty and staff.

Registration is now open for the Psychological Association (CPA) 33rd Annual Convention. The conference will be held on October 25, 2019 in Riverhouse at Goodspeed Station, Haddam CT 06438.

People who are interested to represent an existing poster to facilitate networking need to send email with existing abstract or a PDF of the poster to the CPA administrator:  tricia@grassrootsct.com. 

School of Nursing and Center for Advancement in Managing Pain had a booth in Mansfield event on September 21st to introduce the ongoing studies to the public population. Professors and students talked about the studies with interested people. Participation of school of nursing highlighted the  the closeness of the research aims with the common problems in the general population.

Congratulations to Jie Chen, MSN, RN, our PhD student who has received a $25,000 grant award from the American Nurses Foundation (ANF) for his proposal Phenotyping and Biomarkers of Pain in Older Adults with Heart Failure. Jie Chen, his Major Advisor, Dr. Xiaomei Cong, and Co-Investigators, Dr. Angela Starkweather, Dr. Ming-hui Chen, Dr. Kendra Maas and Dr. Paula McCauley, will use the National Institute of Health Symptom Science Model (NIH-SSM) as conceptual framework. Their study will focus on phenotyping sex-specific pain by exploring the relationships among pain, symptom burdens, and quality of life in older adults with heart failure; and identifying biomarkers by differentiating patterns of gut microbiota and inflammatory cytokines between heart failure patients with and those without pain. 

We will be hosting the Annual Pain Symposium on November 1st 2019 at UConn Student Union Room 331, Storrs, CT. Registration is now open.

Congratulations to Zahra Amirkhanzadeh Barandouzi, our PhD student, and her committee members; Dr. Xiaomei Cong, Dr. Angela Starkweather and Dr. Wendy Henderson; on their grant award from American Nurses Foundation (ANF) for the proposal titled“Biomarkers of Emotional Distress in IBS Patients”.

The purpose of this pilot study is to evaluate the role of the brain-gut microbiome axis in comorbidity between emotional distress and Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

The outcome of this study will shed light on the underlying pathophysiology of this comorbidity and translate the findings into innovative clinical strategies to improve treatment outcomes in IBS patients.