Clinical Pain Research
Chronic pain is a major health problem affecting approximately 10% of the general population in Europe and is globally a dominating cause of reduced function and disability. Pain is generally regarded as a symptom of tissue injury or inflammation (nociceptive pain) or as a symptom of a disease or a lesion in the nervous system (neuropahtic pain). However, there are also primary pain conditions, where the pain results from altered nociception (nociplastic pain) and is classified as a disease, rather than a symptom. The pain research at the Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University consists of several projects with the aim to determine the causes of chronic pain, why certain individuals develop chronic pain while others, with similar injuries/diseases do not, and how the treatment of the various types of chronic pain can be optimized. Our main research questions are: How does the nervous- and the immune-system interact in different types of chronic pain? Why does a certain type of nerve injury lead to the development of chronic neuropathic pain in certain individuals but not in others? What are the associations between sleep and pain? Why does opioid tolerance, dependence and addiction develop and how can it be prevented? How does invasive neurostimulation work and when to use it?
Links to the projects:
Eva Kosek
Professor at Department of Surgical Sciences, Pain