Identifying Markers of Chronic Pain Development in Alcoholism

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Summary This is an application for a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) to support the career development efforts of Dr. Nasim Maleki, including enhanced training in an integrated cross-disciplinary program consisting of in-depth experience in alcoholism neuroscience and pathophysiology under the mentorship of Dr. Marlene Oscar Berman, an expert at the forefront of research on alcohol abuse disorder (AUD), and a team of leading experts in alcoholism, pain, neuroimaging, and statistical modeling. The proposed research is an interdisciplinary study that would bridge AUD research with pain research and as such, allows insights into alcoholism as a risk factor for development of chronic pain disorders, and vice versa. Dr. Maleki aims to leverage neuroimaging and neuropsychiatric data from a large cohort of abstinent long-term alcoholic men and women, to develop retroactive insights and predictive models for chronic pain. Aim 1 seeks to determine whether AUD is associated with damage to the descending pain modulatory network (DPMN) pathways. Aim 2 is to gather further insights into potential abnormalities in the DPMN associated with AUD by performing quantitative sensory testing in AUD patients. Finally, Aim 3 will determine whether presence of depressive or stress symptoms are predictive of chronic pain development in AUD. As chronic pain syndromes have the propensity to trigger the risk of re-initiation of alcohol abuse in abstinent alcoholics, it is important to: (a) characterize pain related abnormalities associated with AUD; (b) understand neural links between AUD and chronic pain; and (c) ultimately identify markers that predict the risk of development of chronic pain in abstinent alcoholics. The findings should allow early detection of AUD patients at risk for developing chronic pain conditions, and earlier start of interventional approaches to reduce the risk of consequent alcohol abuse or relapse.