Neurobiological mechanisms of the interaction between pain and sleep. The project aims to reveal the brain mechanisms behind the interaction between such fundamental biological phenomena as sleep and pain. This highly interdisciplinary project expects to deliver significant insights into how poor sleep changes the brain to increase pain sensitivity in healthy adults, by combining novel lab-based mechanistic sleep and pain manipulations and naturalistic longitudinal observation. The rich multimod ....Neurobiological mechanisms of the interaction between pain and sleep. The project aims to reveal the brain mechanisms behind the interaction between such fundamental biological phenomena as sleep and pain. This highly interdisciplinary project expects to deliver significant insights into how poor sleep changes the brain to increase pain sensitivity in healthy adults, by combining novel lab-based mechanistic sleep and pain manipulations and naturalistic longitudinal observation. The rich multimodal dataset generated by the project will be made publicly available to enhance research transparency and international collaboration. This should provide significant benefits, ultimately opening up ways to improve quality of life and wellbeing of the Australian population.
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Reduction Of Chronic Post-surgical Pain With Ketamine - ROCKet Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$4,823,395.00
Summary
Chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) is a common complication of major surgery, and a significant burden on quality of life and ongoing health costs. Ketamine is a drug used by anaesthetists to treat severe acute surgical pain. Various small studies suggest that it may be unique in its ability to reduce the risk of CPSP. We propose a large trial of ketamine during & after anaesthesia for major surgery to test this. Demonstration of effectiveness would promote widespread change in clinical practice.
Discovery And Development Of Better Pain Treatments
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$9,613,850.00
Summary
Many forms of pain remain poorly treated, leading to significant quality of life and economic losses. This Program grant will discover and characterise new peptides from cone snails and spiders that modulate specific channels in nerves that are critical to the transmission of pain signals to the brain. Using advanced chemical and structural approaches, promising leads will be optimised for potency and stability and evaluated in disease and pathway-specific models of pain to establish their clini ....Many forms of pain remain poorly treated, leading to significant quality of life and economic losses. This Program grant will discover and characterise new peptides from cone snails and spiders that modulate specific channels in nerves that are critical to the transmission of pain signals to the brain. Using advanced chemical and structural approaches, promising leads will be optimised for potency and stability and evaluated in disease and pathway-specific models of pain to establish their clinical potential.Read moreRead less
Molecular Targets Of Amino Acid/neurotransmitter Conjugates Of Fatty Acids
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$846,390.00
Summary
This project investigates endogenous chemicals that affect cells important for detecting and responding to pain. We aim to discover how these compounds affect proteins important for nerve cell function, particularly proteins that have a prominent role in detecting and transmitting painful events. The compounds we examine are not themselves likely to be drugs, but future therapies may involve manipulating the levels of these chemicals in the body, or using drugs that mimic the activity of these c ....This project investigates endogenous chemicals that affect cells important for detecting and responding to pain. We aim to discover how these compounds affect proteins important for nerve cell function, particularly proteins that have a prominent role in detecting and transmitting painful events. The compounds we examine are not themselves likely to be drugs, but future therapies may involve manipulating the levels of these chemicals in the body, or using drugs that mimic the activity of these compounds.Read moreRead less
Spinal Cord Injury Pain: Understanding Mechanisms To Develop Treatments
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$597,675.00
Summary
Spinal cord injury has devastating effects on health and quality of life. Many of the major consequences of injury, such as chronic pain and loss of voluntary voiding, are "invisible" – i.e., they are not as visible as limitations of mobility. Our study aims to define the neurobiological changes that cause development of persistent pain after spinal cord injury and use pharmacological tools to attenuate the development of pain.
Use Of Analgesics To Reduce Agitation And Agression In Older Persons With Dementia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$552,556.00
Summary
Understanding the causes of Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) provides a potentially remedial target for interventions. The current study will undertake the first ever trial of analgesics to reduce the frequency of agitation/aggression and other BPSD. By completion we will have new insights into the relationship between pain and various sub-types of BPSD and robust evidence on the best class of analgesics to treat BPSD
A Randomised Clinical Trial To Test A Pain Education Program For Patients With Cancer And Their Family Carers
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$150,000.00
Summary
This study seeks to improve cancer patients' and family carers' knowledge and attitudes toward pain management. A pain education program will be offered to patients with recurrent or progressive cancer and their primary family carers. The study addresses a palliative care concern that impacts upon a large number of Australians each year. The study has the potential to provide a brief, standardised protocol that could be taught and integrated into usual practice and to reduce health care costs fo ....This study seeks to improve cancer patients' and family carers' knowledge and attitudes toward pain management. A pain education program will be offered to patients with recurrent or progressive cancer and their primary family carers. The study addresses a palliative care concern that impacts upon a large number of Australians each year. The study has the potential to provide a brief, standardised protocol that could be taught and integrated into usual practice and to reduce health care costs for advanced cancer patients.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354596
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$20,000.00
Summary
Perception and Action in Auditory Scenes (PAAS): Neural, Behavioural, Computational and Mechanical Systems. Auditory scenes are temporal and ephemeral yet pervasively influence human life. How humans negotiate such scenes has not been solved, a fact highlighted by attempts to build machines to respond to speech, warnings etc., in real-world situations with room reverberation, different talkers, and background noise. No one discipline can solve such problems. In this network outstanding researche ....Perception and Action in Auditory Scenes (PAAS): Neural, Behavioural, Computational and Mechanical Systems. Auditory scenes are temporal and ephemeral yet pervasively influence human life. How humans negotiate such scenes has not been solved, a fact highlighted by attempts to build machines to respond to speech, warnings etc., in real-world situations with room reverberation, different talkers, and background noise. No one discipline can solve such problems. In this network outstanding researchers from physical, medical, human, and social sciences with interests in speech, music and audition will provide insights into how humans and machines localize, recognize, interpret and produce auditory events, and advance frontier technologies, e.g., automatic speech recognition, hearing prostheses, auditory monitoring/warning systems.Read moreRead less
Efficacy Of Prism Adaptation For Recovery Of Brain Function In Unilateral Spatial Neglect
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$531,690.00
Summary
Damage to the brain’s attention network causes profound impairments of visual and sensory perception. These deficits are frequently long-lasting, and are a major factor in preventing patients from regaining functional independence. This project will use a combination of behavioural and brain imaging techniques to determine whether a promising new treatment involving visual retraining can improve function and reduce perceptual impairments after unilateral brain lesions.
Learning from our mistakes: How and when complex decisions fail. The project aims to develop a novel mathematical framework, augmented by simulations and a set of experiments, to study when and how people commit errors. The modern environment bombards us with signals, such as radio and television advertisements as we sit at home or warning lights and car honks as we cross the road. Despite years of psychological research, it is not entirely clear how efficiently people cope with increasing amoun ....Learning from our mistakes: How and when complex decisions fail. The project aims to develop a novel mathematical framework, augmented by simulations and a set of experiments, to study when and how people commit errors. The modern environment bombards us with signals, such as radio and television advertisements as we sit at home or warning lights and car honks as we cross the road. Despite years of psychological research, it is not entirely clear how efficiently people cope with increasing amounts of information nor is it clear whether they process multiple signals simultaneously (in parallel) or one after the other (serial). The project offers new measures, based on the rate and pattern of error responses, to supplement the commonly used response times. The combination of a theoretical framework, based on mathematical and computational work, with empirical data to test the models, may deliver a better understanding of human performance and its limitations.Read moreRead less