Exposure to traumatic events is common in life. In industrialized nations, motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) are one of the most common types of trauma, with over 50 million MVCs occurring worldwide each year. The great majority of individuals experiencing MVC do not have serious injury; in the US more than 90% of individuals seen in the emergency department after MVC are discharged home after evaluation. However, a substantial proportion of such individuals develop chronic musculoskeletal pain (MSP). Most individuals who develop chronic MSP following MVC are women. This fact is consistent with the marked increase in MSP burden experienced by women vs. men in other settings. Biopsychosocial mechanisms responsible for this increased vulnerability remain poorly understood, leading the NIH and eminent pain scientists to call for more research aimed at addressing this knowledge gap. The candidate, Dr. Sarah Linnstaedt, is an RNA biologist who seeks a K01 career development award to gain the training necessary to perform studies that will provide important new insights into the biologic mechanisms, and the interactions between these mechanisms and cognitive/psychosocial factors, that contribute to chronic MSP pathogenesis in women. Specifically, the proposed career development award will provide Dr. Linnstaedt with the knowledge and skills necessary to (1) evaluate candidate biological mechanisms within contemporary, state-of-the-art biopsychsocial models of chronic MSP that include influential cognitive and psychosocial factors, (2) perform studies of sex-specific biological mechanisms that previous data, and the candidate?s pilot data, suggest contribute to chronic MSP in women, and (3) evaluate potential interactions between biological and psychosocial factors. Data for this work will be drawn from biologic samples collected as part of a mentor?s longitudinal cohort study of chronic MSP pathogensis after MVC. By the end of the award period, Dr. Linnstaedt will have the necessary knowledge, experience, skills, and data to obtain an R01 and become an independently-funded translational research scientist whose work addresses the current marked disparity in chronic pain incidence among women.
Little is known regarding the underlying mechanisms leading to increased chronic pain in women. The candidate's first-in-kind studies will use biological samples and cognitive/psychosocial data from a longitudinal cohort of individuals enrolled following motor vehicle collision trauma to evaluate candidate mediators of pain pathogenesis in women. Such work has the potential to lead to new strategies that lower pain incidence and severity in women and all individuals.
| Linnstaedt, Sarah D; Pan, Yue; Mauck, Matthew C et al. (2018) Evaluation of the Association Between Genetic Variants in Circadian Rhythm Genes and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Identifies a Potential Functional Allele in the Transcription Factor TEF. Front Psychiatry 9:597 |
