I am interested in disease progression, prognosis, and treatment effects for comorbid health conditions that fall within the cluster of common co-aggregating pain disorders now known as Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions (COPCs) by NIH and Congress. COPCs involve a complex set of some of the highest impact pain conditions (e.g., nonspecific low back pain, temporomandibular disorders, headache, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, pelvic pain) and symptoms that share common biopsychosocial mechanisms that represent therapeutic targets for improving the efficiency and quality of health care.
A primary area of my research focus is to assess and characterize symptoms such as pain and fatigue, and critical brain processes such as executive function, that interfere with functional ability and quality of life in individuals with COPCs, in order to help patients better manage their symptoms and function. And a major goal of this work is to leverage advanced statistical analyses, repeated measurement methods, and ecological momentary assessments in order to more usefully examine the dynamic associations between day-to-day symptoms, and physical and mental functioning. A short-term goal is to determine the role of executive function in individuals with COPCs that would inform therapeutic targets for chronic pain. My long-term goal is to develop evidence-based clinical guidelines to improve overall treatment of COPCs, which requires the determination of mechanisms that enhance self-regulation for the viability of pain and symptom management to improve chronic pain and functional limitation outcomes across multiple clinical populations.
A secondary area of my research focus is to use modern measurement models and psychometrics for diagnostic research, scale development and validation, and the assessment of the measurement properties inclusive of cross-cultural validity and reliability of translations of diagnostic criteria and pain-related outcomes to various languages. A major goal of this work is to establish measures that have clinical value and are useful for cross-cultural pain translational research.