News Archive

Our colleagues in the NUIG Dept. of Psychology recently played host to two conferences, the Innovations in Health Psychology conference celebrating the 21st birthday of the Msc. in Health Psychology NUIG on the 8th June, and the mHealth Conference on Behavioural Science and Mobile Technology on the 9th.Drs Brian McGuire and Brian Slattery were on the organisational committee for the mHealth conference, and various other members of the CPR presented at both. 

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Pictured below at the second annual Research Leaders Award network meeting among the other Research Leaders and their teams are Brian McGuire, Brian Slattery and Laura O'Connor. 

Co-director of the CPR, Dr. Brian McGuire, has joined the editorial board of Pain Medicine .

Pain Medicine is the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM), and is a premier source of peer reviewed research and commentary on matters relevant to the multidisciplinary clinical practice of pain medicine.

‌Our annual Research Day took place in the Aula Maxima on the 27th of January, covering a range of topics across the talks and poster session. Our research assistant, Hannah Durand, wrote a blog post for the NUIG Health Psychology blog covering the event. 

Many thanks to all who attended the event, those who presented talks and posters, and particular thanks go to Prof. Herta Flor (Scientific Director of the Department of Neuropsychology at the University of Heidelberg, Central Institute for Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany) for traveling to give her keynote on ’Learning and brain plasticity in chronic pain: implications for treatment'.

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Pictured above (from left) are Hazel Wolstenhome, Louise Burke, Phoebe McKenna Plumley, Hannah Durand, and Dr. Siobhán O'Higgins presenting Bright Sparks at the recent Explore Celebration. 

Bright Sparks is an Explore-funded project with the aim of introducing neuroscience to children, while also teaching them about the importance of a healthy body for a healthy mind, headed by postdoctoral researcher Dr. Siobhán O'Higgins and PhD student Mark Glennon. 
Children participated in workshops hosted in the School of Psychology, in which they learned about the brain and tried out various tasks including an EEG scan.

You can find out more about the project in the Bright Sparks Poster presented at the Explore showcase event. ‌You can also follow Bright Sparks on Twitter and Facebook.

Co-director of the CPR, Dr. Brian McGuire, has joined the editorial board of Pain Medicine .

Pain Medicine is the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM), and is a premier source of peer reviewed research and commentary on matters relevant to the multidisciplinary clinical practice of pain medicine. 

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Line Caes is one of six recipients of the 2015 Early Career Research Grants awarded by the International Association for the Study of Pain. The grant will support a pilot project investigating everyday pain experiences of preschoolers, by exploring the feasibility of two different methodologies to observe parent-child interactions within their home environment. More information can be found here

Applications are invited from suitably qualified candidates for two (2) fixed-term contract Research Assistant positions in Neuroscience/Neuropharmacology based at the National University of Ireland, Galway.  Appointments will be made on a full-time fixed-term contract basis for four years subject to successful completion of probationary period.  The successful candidates will work on a research programme that will employ an integrative, multidisciplinary, whole-systems neuroscience approach to elucidate the role of the brain’s opioid system in preclinical models of relevance to depression, anxiety, pain and autism. 

These posts are funded by a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Strategic Partnership Programme Grant totalling ~ €1.6 million to Professor John Kelly,  Professor David Finn and Dr Michelle Roche in collaboration with Professor Shane O’Mara at Trinity College Dublin and Alkermes plc. Successful candidates will join a vibrant group of researchers in NUI Galway’s Neuroscience Centre and Centre for Pain Research.

Applicant specifications: Candidates should hold, or have in prospect, a first class or upper second class honours BSc in a relevant biology-based subject, a relevant MSc would be an advantage. Applicants must demonstrate a keen interest in pre-clinical research in the area of neuroscience and neuropharmacology relating to affective disorders, pain and autism.   Experience in one or more of the following would be desirable: Behavioural neuroscience/neuropharmacology; pre-clinical pain, stress, anxiety, depression or autism research models; stereotaxic surgery; intracerebral microinjection; in vivo microdialysis coupled to HPLC; immunohistochemistry; mass spectrometry for quantitation of small molecules; Western immunoblotting; RT-qPCR; radioligand binding. 

For further information, please download the full advertisement: Research Assistant Posts in Neuroscience/Neuropharmacology

Please note that the closing date for receipt of applications is 5.00 p.m. Friday 26th June 2015.

In collaboration with Professor Andrew Murphy at the Discipline of General Practice at NUI Galway, Dr. Brian McGuire and Dr. Brian Slattery received funding from the Irish College of General Practitioners to conduct a 6 year follow-up study of the Prevalence, Impact and Cost of Chronic Pain in Ireland (PRIME) study. The PRIME-6 study will commence in September.

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Dr. Christopher Dwyer spoke on Galway Bay FM this morning about this trial. Listen below! 

The Centre for Pain Research at NUI Galway is currently recruiting people with chronic pain (pain which lasted for 3 months or more) to take part in the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) trial. The study offers patients with chronic pain the opportunity to avail of 8 online sessions in the comfort of their own home!

The sessions, which are free of charge, will focus on values and goals that are individual to each person in the trial; provide instruction on a range of activity-pacing techniques to encourage more consistent levels of activity from day-to-day; provide mindfulness techniques to allow moment-to-moment awareness of all experiences; and cognitive therapy to help identify both negative thinking patterns and the development of effective challenges. The study, funded by the Health Research Board, is open to people all over Ireland and will take place over the coming months. GPs and physiotherapists around the country are being encouraged to refer suitable people with pain to the study.

Dr. Christopher Dwyer, post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Pain Research, NUI Galway says: “We know that a combination of psychological and physical therapies provided to people with chronic pain are beneficial, particularly for people at risk of long term disability. However, this type of service is often only accessible via specialised hospital-based pain management teams. In this trial, we will offer this type of service to people all over the country and at any stage of injury.”

Dr. Dwyer added, “This programme was set up by expert psychologists and physiotherapists in the management of chronic pain. In total, the programme lasts for 8 weeks and is delivered online to people with chronic pain, in the comfort of their own homes. People who take part in the trial are not asked to attend any clinic or the university at any stage. All materials are tailored for those wishing to learn effective ways of managing their chronic pain. Participants can access physiotherapy and all medical services as usual while involved in the trial.” The researchers are specifically interested in hearing from people who have pain for 3 months or longer and have regular access to a computer and the internet.

For further information, please contact Dr. Christopher Dwyer at the Centre for Pain Research, NUI Galway, email painresearch@nuigalway.ie or phone 091 495 391.GPs or physiotherapists who are interested in referring suitable patients to the trial can also use these contact details.

Pictured below following their symposium at the European Health Psychology Society conference in Cyprus are Dr. Brian McGuire, Dr. Siobhán O'Higgins, ‌Dr. Kiran Sarma, Dr. Marios Constanidou (University of Nicosia), Dr. John Bogue, and Dr. Christopher Dwyer. 

Two NUI Galway PhD students were awarded first place medals at the Irish Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting which took place in Dublin recently. The medals were awarded to Marie Fitzgibbon from Oola, Co. Limerick and Hannah Durand from Galway City.

The research poster presentations were judged by a panel of international experts who commended the high quality of the research. Researchers from the Centre for Pain Research and Galway Neuroscience Centre at NUI Galway have had an outstanding record of success in this competition over the years, being among the prize winners on every occasion.

Marie Fitzgibbon, a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Discipline of Physiology, won the Pre-Clinical Pain Research Medal for her presentation ‘Peripheral inhibition of FAAH attenuates formalin-evoked nociceptive responding in a mouse model of IFN-α-induced analgesia.’ Marie’s research, supervised by Dr Michelle Roche and Professor David Finn, involves the investigation of mechanisms underlying co-existent mood and pain disorders as well as the identification of future therapeutic targets. Marie’s research is funded by Molecular Medicine Ireland Clinical and Translational Research Scholars Programme and Science Foundation Ireland Research Frontiers Project.

Hannah Durand, a first-year PhD candidate in the School of Psychology, won the Clinical Pain Research Medal for her presentation ‘Persistent and recurrent pain in childhood: Patterns of childhood chronic pain over two years (PRIME-C).’ Hannah’s research, supervised by Dr Siobhan O'Higgins and Dr Brian McGuire, examined the characteristics of children who reported chronic pain at more than one time point in the PRIME-C survey, which evaluates the prevalence, impact, and cost of chronic pain for 5–12 year old children living in Ireland.  PRIME-C is funded by the Health Research Board Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement Award.

Professor David Finn, Leader of the Galway Neuroscience Centre and Co-Director of NUI Galway’s Centre for Pain Research, said: “We are delighted to see NUI Galway researchers win these prestigious prizes for their work. Our pain research aims to advance the understanding and treatment of chronic pain, a major unmet clinical need affecting at least 20% of the population.” 

The meeting also witnessed the launch of the new Irish Pain Research Network (IPRN), a new initiative that will run as a special interest group of the Irish Pain Society. Professor Rolf-Detlef Treede, President of the International Association for the Study of Pain, launched the new research network, together with Professor David Finn, incoming President of the Irish Pain Society. The aim of IPRN is to bring together all active pain researchers on the island of Ireland for the purposes of sharing research results and ideas and facilitating cross-institutional collaboration in the area of pain research.

The Irish Pain Research Network (IPRN) is a new national initiative that aims to bring together all active pain researchers on the island of Ireland (North and South) for the purposes of sharing research results and ideas and facilitating cross-institutional collaboration in the area of pain research. 

The idea to establish the IPRN arose from discussions last year between NUI Galway pain researchers, Professor David Finn and Dr Brian McGuire from the School of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and UCD researchers, Dr Brona Fullen, Dr Catherine Doody and Dr Catherine Blake. It was recognised that while a number of academic institutions and hospitals in Ireland currently have a cluster or centre of pain researchers, there is currently no forum that brings all of these groupings together specifically for the purpose of discussing pain research and advancing collaborative pain research within Ireland. 

The IPRN was launched by Professor Rolf-Detlef Treede, President of the International Association of Pain, at the 15th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Irish Pain Society at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin on Saturday, 26 September. The launch took the form of an inaugural research symposium where researchers from the various pain research groups across the country will give short presentations, followed by a round table discussion of collaborative opportunities and potential joint grant applications. 

The IPRN will be run as a special interest group of the Irish Pain Society. Incoming President of the Irish Pain Society and founding member of IPRN, Professor David Finn from the Centre for Pain Research at NUI Galway, said: “Given the increasing requirement for institutions to work together and to share resources to do the best possible research, the establishment of IPRN will facilitate closer dialogue and collaboration between all active pain researchers based in academic institutions, hospitals, other healthcare practices, or industry.” 

The aim is to have strong representation from every major pain research grouping across Ireland. Those active in pain research within Ireland are invited to join IPRN. Pain researchers at any level of seniority are welcome to join, and students and early-career researchers are particularly welcome. 

There is no fee to join IPRN but you must be a member of the Irish Pain Society to join. All registered delegates at the Annual Scientific Meeting on Saturday will automatically become members of the Irish Pain Society and are therefore eligible to join IPRN if they wish.

To join IPRN contact Orla Doran on ODoran@coa.ie and put ‘IPRN’ in the email subject field.

For further information visit http://www.irishpainsociety.com/

Brian McGuire (PI), Siobhan O’Higgins, Chris Dwyer, Brian Slattery and Laura O’Connor have recently been successful in applying for two HRB Knowledge Exchange and Dissemination Awards.  

The first KEDS award (€50,000) related to the current ICE research programme, will include development of a video to educate children, parents and teachers about the problem of chronic pain in young people and development of an app for health professionals to estimate the risk of future disability in chronic pain patients based on psychosocial risk factors. Chris Dwyer and Siobhán O'Higgins are the researchers currently working on this project and will be joined by another research assistant funded by the KEDS award.

The second KEDS award (€60,000) related to the Research Leaders Award and in conjunction with Dr. Liam Glynn in Discipline of General Practice, will include the development of a web platform for researchers and clinicians to collate and share data on multiborbidity and the development of a new online course on e-health interventions. Brian Slattery, Laura O'Connor, and Stephanie Haugh currently work on the Research Leaders Award and will also be joined by a further research assistant. 

Both projects will commence in the coming weeks and are to be completed within a year. 

Centre‌ for Pain Research co-directors Dr Brian McGuire and Dr David Finn featured on the RTÉ science series "10 Things to Know About... Pain" on Monday 7th December. The episode will be available on the RTÉ Player for the next month, to watch click here

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Prof Stinson is the Mary Jo Haddad Nursing Research Chair in Child Health and a Senior Scientist in the Research Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.  She is also an Associate Professor in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, Institute of Medical Science and Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Professor Stinson’s research focuses on improving the way healthcare is delivered to children with painful life threatening and chronic illnesses and their families using the latest in information and communications technologies (ICTs). For more information see: http://www.sickkids.ca/AboutSickKids/Directory/People/S/Jennifer-Stinson-staff-profile.html

Dr Siobhain O’Mahony is a lecturer in the Department Neuroscience/Anatomy at University College Cork and a Principal Investigator in the neurogastroenterology core of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) Microbiome Institute. Dr O’Mahony’s research group focuses on the long-term consequences of early-life stress in particular the impact on the neural and molecular communication pathways between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract and how dysfunction of this communication can lead to an exaggerated pain response. For more information see: http://publish.ucc.ie/profiles/C003/somahony

We would like to schedule a small number of short oral presentations (10 mins each) and have a poster presentation session, with prizes.  If you would like to present a pain-related poster or short oral communication, please download the form below and email this back to line.caes@nuigalway.ie by Friday 19th of February. Posters/talks recently presented at national or international conferences are acceptable, in addition to any new work that you might wish to present.

Abstract Submission Form for CPR Research Day 2016‌

Further details on the schedule and venue for the day will follow shortly but in the meantime please mark it in your calendars and let us know if you have any queries by emailing line.caes@nuigalway.ie

An NUI Galway PhD student was awarded first prize for her poster presentation at the 8^th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Faculty of Pain Medicine which took place in Dublin recently. The prize was awarded to Louise Corcoran from Tuam, Co. Galway.

The research poster presentations were judged by a panel of experts who commended the high quality of the research. Researchers from the Centre for Pain Research and Galway Neuroscience Centre (within the NCBES) at NUI Galway have had an excellent record of success in this competition over recent years.

Prize-winner Louise, a second-year PhD candidate in the Discipline of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, won first prize for her poster presentation entitled ‘Impaired expression of fear-conditioned analgesia in the stress- and pain-hyper responsive Wistar-Kyoto rat strain’. Louise’s research, supervised by Professor David Finn and Dr Michelle Roche, involves the investigation of mechanisms underlying co-existent mood and pain disorders as well as the identification of future therapeutic targets. Louise’s research is funded jointly by NUI Galway and a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Fellowship from the Irish Research Council.

Professor David Finn, Co-Director of NUI Galway’s Centre for Pain Research, said: “We are delighted to see NUI Galway researchers win these prestigious prizes for their work. Our pain research aims to advance the understanding and treatment of chronic pain, a major unmet clinical need affecting at least 20% of the population.”  

We are currently looking for families of a child between 3-5 years of age for our study on everyday pain experiences in preschoolers.

You can find more information on the study in this document (Information sheet - Everyday Pain 3-5‌), if you know anybody who would be willing to participate it would be appreciated if you could share this information with them!

Pictured below are members of the Centre for Pain Research, with the visiting Prof Jennifer Stinson, from the Hospital for Sick Children and Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, Institute of Medical Science and Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. 

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Our annual Research Day took place in the Psychology building, NUI Galway on the 14th of March, covering a range of topics across the talks and poster session.

Many thanks to all who attended the event, those who presented talks and posters, and particularly to our keynotes, Prof Jennifer Stinson (Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada) and Dr Siobhain O’Mahony (UCC, Cork, Ireland), pictured below with the winners of the Best Poster Presentations, Angeline Traynor and Jessica Gaspar and Best Short Oral Presentation, Dr Brian Slattery. 

Do you know or are you the parent of a teen (age 10 - 16) suffering from chronic pain? You can help the Centre for Pain Research at NUI Galway evaluate an 8-week online pain management program for teens with chronic pain to help them and their parents to cope with pain. Each participating family will receive €20 to thank them for their participation. 

Please email painresearch@nuigalway.ie with "Pediatric chronic pain study" in the subject line for more information.

Do you know or are you the parent of a teen (age 10 - 16) suffering from chronic pain? You can help the Centre for Pain Research at NUI Galway evaluate an 8-week online pain management program for teens with chronic pain to help them and their parents to cope with pain. 

Please email painresearch@nuigalway.ie with "Pediatric chronic pain study" in the subject line for more information.

 Left to right: Ms Aoife Smith (Mundipharma, prize sponsors), Mr Conor Rothwell (Mundipharma, prize sponsors), Ms Andy Cochrane (Maynooth University; winner of the Clinical Research Medal, Ms Louise Corcoran (NUI Galway, winner of the Non Clinical Research Medal), Prof David Finn (President of the Irish Pain Society), Ms Joanne O' Brien (President-Elect of the Irish Pain Society).  

An NUI Galway PhD student was awarded the Pain Research Medal at the Irish Pain Society’s Annual Scientific Meeting which took place in Dublin on Saturday 3rd September. The medal was awarded to Louise Corcoran from Tuam, Co. Galway for her poster presentation.

 The research poster presentations were judged by a panel of international experts who commended the high quality of the research. Researchers from the NUI Galway’s Centre for Pain Research and Galway Neuroscience Centre have had an outstanding record of success in this competition over the years, being among the prize winners on every occasion.

 Louise Corcoran, a 3rd-year PhD candidate in the Discipline of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, won the Non-Clinical Pain Research Medal for her presentation ‘Impaired expression of fear-conditioned analgesia in the stress- and pain-hyperresponsive Wistar-Kyoto rat strain’. Louise’s research, supervised by Professor David Finn and Dr Michelle Roche, involves the investigation of mechanisms underlying co-existent mood and pain disorders as well as the identification of future therapeutic targets. Louise’s research is funded jointly by Science Foundation Ireland, NUI Galway, and a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Fellowship from the Irish Research Council.  The Clinical Pain research Medal was awarded to Andy Cochrane of Maynooth University for her poster entitled ‘Screening for the risk of long-term sick leave and work disability amongst workers with musculoskeletal pain.’

Professor David Finn, Co-Director of NUI Galway’s Centre for Pain Research, said: “We are delighted to see NUI Galway researcher Louise win this prestigious prize for her work. Our pain research aims to advance the understanding and treatment of chronic pain, a major unmet clinical need affecting at least 20% of the population.”

A new online treatment programme, set up by expert psychologists and physiotherapists, aims to help those who are managing multiple chronic health conditions.

The Centre for Pain Research at NUI Galway, with the support of the Health Research Board, is currently recruiting people with two or more chronic health conditions to take part in a research study. The Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) trial will provide eight online sessions to people in the comfort of their own home. At the moment, such supports are scarce and generally aimed at the self-management of specific chronic conditions, such as diabetes or chronic pain.

Research has shown that having multiple chronic conditions, also known as multimorbidity is associated with a number of negative outcomes, such as a decline in physical and mental functioning, a decreased quality of life and a greater risk of mortality. The ACT trial is based on emerging clinical science that demonstrates the usefulness of managing health conditions through mindfulness and psychological well-being.

The study is open to people all over Ireland and will take place over the coming months. GPs and other health professionals around the country are being encouraged to refer suitable people to the study.

The free online sessions in the ACT programme will focus on values and goals that are individual to each person in the trial. Participants will be provided with instructions on a range of activity-pacing techniques to encourage more consistent levels of activity from day-to-day.

Dr Brian Slattery, coordinator of the study at the Centre for Pain Research, NUI Galway, says: “We know that psychological therapies provided to people with chronic conditions are beneficial, but can be hard to access. In this trial, we will offer this online programme to people all over the country, with any combination of conditions, to try alongside any existing treatments they are already using.”

People who take part in the ACT trial will not need to attend any clinic or the University at any stage. All materials are tailored for those wishing to learn effective ways of managing their health conditions. Participants can access physiotherapy and all medical services as usual while involved in the trial. Study supervisor Dr Brian McGuire, NUI Galway, said: “This is a promising new online pain management programme and we are hopeful it will be of benefit to people with multimorbidity.”

For further information, please contact the research team at the Centre for Pain Research, NUI Galway, email painresearch@nuigalway.ie, or phone 091 495832. GPs or physiotherapists who are interested in referring suitable patients to the trial can also use these contact details.