The parent grant was awarded as a HEAL Initiative award, specifically as part of the Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research Program (FOA: AR19-026). The current proposal will supplement the University of Michigan Mechanistic Research Center (UM MRC; U19 AR076734-01). The UM MRC aims to perform interventional response phenotyping in a cohort of chronic low back pain (cLBP) patients. Interventional response phenotyping describes the critical need to attain high quality information on each participant regarding to which drug and non-drug therapies they do and do not respond. This need extends to psychotherapeutic interventions, which are often used for the treatment of cLBP. This proposal will provide one year of support for the candidate to attain focused training in clinical pain research, including exploring differential response to psychotherapeutic interventions. Successful completion of this work will provide the HEAL Initiative with an extensive systematic literature review examining baseline phenotypic factors that predict differential responsiveness to the some of the most commonly used psychotherapeutic interventions for cLBP. The training plan will allow the candidate to: 1) understand the theory underlying and execution of some of the most commonly used psychotherapeutic interventions for cLBP; 2) develop expertise in phenotypic differences among patients with cLBP that might impact interventional efficacy; and 3) understand the patient and provider experience in order to promote the development and implementation of effective interventions for cLBP. The candidate will work with the PIs of the parent grant, Drs. Afton Hassett and Daniel Clauw, to complete this comprehensive training and research plan. Combined with the rich environment of the University of Michigan, this award will provide focused training to establish a unique niche of expertise and an independent research program focused on intervention modification, development, and evaluation for chronic pain patients with a history of trauma, the candidate?s primary area of interest.
There are numerous psychotherapeutic interventions used for individuals with chronic low back pain, yet no treatment is invariably effective for all. Understanding patient characteristics that predict differential responses to these non-pharmacological interventions is critical. Such information allows for a tailored treatment plan that maximizes positive patient impact.
