Pain

Human Research

This group is led by Professors Andrew Somogyi, Jason White & Paul Rolan.  We have developed experimental models for the study of pain responses in humans.  These have been applied to healthy volunteers, people maintained on opioid agonist medications (methadone and buprenorphine) and people maintained on the opioid antagonist naltrexone and people with chronic pain due to malignancy or nonmalignancy. Our principal models are the cold pressor test, the electrical stimulation test and evaluation of mechanical allodynia using von Frey hairs.  Our experimental approach is to target specific blood drug concentrations which are achieved through intravenous administration using programmed infusions.  Blood samples are collected for pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic analysis in order to help account for and identifymajor sources of variability in drug response.

We have been able to demonstrate profound hyperalgesia in people maintained on a variety of opioid drugs and one of our goals is to determine methods which will be effective in overcoming this hyperalgesic response.


Current Projects:

• Pain management in opiate dependence:
• Models of Induction of Experimental Pain
• Pain Management in Naltrexone Maintained Patients
• Novel Pharmacological Approaches to Minimizing Hyperalgesia
• Pharmacokinetics of opioids and co-analgesia
• Pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics of opioids: Professor Andrew Somogyi, Dr Janet Coller