Interdisciplinary Training in Biobehavioral Pain Research

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Pain is one of the most common and costly symptoms in our society. Advances in pain treatment have been disappointing, especially for chronic pain, which is poorly understood and the leading cause of disability worldwide. Given the tremendous cost and impact of pain, it is important to develop an interdisciplinary research workforce capable of leading innovative studies to unravel the causes of persistent pain and discover better pain relief strategies. Our goal is to prepare the next generation of pain researchers to lead this effort. As such, we seek to renew and expand our postdoctoral Interdisciplinary Training Program in Biobehavioral Pain Research at the Johns Hopkins University from four to six positions. Pain is a highly complex phenomenon that involves, genetic, molecular, neurophysiologic, cognitive-emotional, and sociocultural determinants. The treatment of pain remains inadequate in almost every clinical situation and consequently necessitates institutions create specialized, interdisciplinary training in pain research to address the tremendous challenge of developing, evaluating, disseminating, and integrating effective pain treatments into clinical care. As such, the Institute of Medicine’s ‘Relieving Pain in America’ report notes the importance and need for more interdisciplinary pain training programs. Our 26 program faculty cuts across 10 departments in the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, and Engineering. The overarching goal of the proposed postdoctoral program is to prepare the next generation of innovative research leaders to work cooperatively within an interdisciplinary team to address the complex problem of pain. This proposal emphasizes the neuroscience of pain throughout training. Each faculty mentor is an actively funded scientist, engaged in the education of new investigators, and committed to interdisciplinary collaboration. The two-year program incorporates coursework, seminars and mentored research experiences in at least two scientific domains that are synthesized by: 1) an integrated research project, 2) an extramural grant application, and 3) the writing and publishing of papers. The training objectives are to: 1) develop an enhanced foundation in the neuroscience of pain; 2) engender a broad conceptualization of pain that includes, but is not limited to, neurobiologic, cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social processes; 3) develop skills for communicating, networking and collaborating with scientists in other disciplines; and 4) design and conduct an integrative pain research project. Each fellow is to be collaboratively mentored by two Core faculty with distinct domains of pain research expertise in either: 1) basic neuroscience, 2) clinical research or 3) behavioral or social science. Fellows take courses in experimental design, statistics, quantitative methods and the responsible conduct of research, which are reinforced throughout several pain-related content and career development seminars. Our goal is to prepare the next generation of pain scientists to lead interdisciplinary research teams that will innovatively address the problem of pain.