Pain research

The Caulfield Pain Management and Research Centre has a very strong and active program in applied clinical research.

Major areas of current activity include two NHMRC trials of antidepressant therapy for the management of chronic low back pain, and the utility of simple analgesics to reduce pain-related agitation and aggression in persons with dementia living in residential aged care facilities, and an ARC funded linkage project, partnering with the Transport Accident Commission, aimed at investigating the role of compensation status on chronic pain and functional outcomes after traumatic injury with a focus on psychological factors (attention, beliefs and attitudes, emotional responses, PTSD). A major stream of research involves the development of better outcome measures for the assessment of chronic pain conditions and was one of the first Victorian sites to commence participating in the electronic Persistent Pain Outcomes Collaboration in 2014.

Current research projects in this area

  • Chronic pain and functional impairment following traumatic injury: An investigation into the impact of compensation status and experience. Georgiou-Karistianis N, Giummarra M, Cameron P, Gibson SJ, Ponsford J, Fielding J, Jennings P
  • Establishing a minimum dataset of outcome measures for use in Victorian Persistent Pain Services – the VICPOP study, jointly with Melbourne Health and Ballarat Health. Arnold C, Gibson SJ, Guimmarra M, Dircks L A, Hogg M, Pichler A, , Allen A, Innes A, Ayers T, Auchettl A
  • Investigation into the neurophysiological correlates of pain contagion. Giummarra M, Gibson SJ, Fielding J, Georgiou-Karistianis N, Verdejo-Garcia A
  • Does self efficacy predict long term functional outcomes among patients with persistent pain after attendance at a multidisciplinary pain management group. Thomas F
  • Predicting long term post operative pain after hernia repair. Konstantos A, Gibson SJ
  • Development of psychometric measures in older chronic pain patients. Woods B, Nicholas M, Blyth F, Gibson SJ
  • An RCT of analgesic medications for the management of BPSD. Ames D, Gibson SJ, Byrne G, Katz B
  • Dementia Training Study Centres. Wingard M, Murray M, Gibson SJ, Disler P, Robinson A, Ebriham J, Stokes D
  • Does low dose amitriptyline reduce pain in knee osteoarthritis? A double blind, randomised, pragmatic, placebo controlled clinical trial of amitriptyline in addition to usual care. Wluka, A, Cicuttini F, Noone A, Bellhouse C, Brady S, Chou L, Teichtahl A, Forbes A, Arnold C, Wang Y, Hutton E
  • Is low dose amitriptyline more effective than placebo in the management of chronic, neuropathic low back pain? A double- blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial with an economic evaluation. Urquart D, Cicuttini F, Wluka A, Sim M, Van Tudler M, Forbes A, Arnold C, Gibson SJ, Wang Y
  • Treating depression with analgesics in persons with dementia. Gibson, SJ, Savvas, S
  • The prevalence and degree of androgen deficiency in men with chronic non-malignant pain managed with and without opiate analgesia: an exploratory pilot study. Sarlos S, Arnold C, Allan A, McLachlan RI, Giummarra M, Doery Jand Weng Choy K.
  • An investigation of proprioceptive matching performance in relation to chronic pain. Tsay A, Guimmarra M, Allen T, Proske U.
  • Investigation into the role of oxytocin in the modulation of pain experience. Tracy, L., Giummarra, M, Gibson, S.J., Georgiou-Karistianis, N.
  • Understanding and improving attention, thinking and memory difficulties experienced by people with chronic pain. Baker K, Guimmarra M, Gibson S, Georgiou-Karistianis N