Massachusetts General Hospital

BiographyI have been working in MGH Center for Pain Medicine for more than ten years. I have been actively involved in clinical research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Translational Pain Research. My current research interests are focused on clinical studies: 1.  to evaluate acupuncture outcome in pain management. 2. to evaluate hyperalgesia in patients with chronic opioid use (opioid-induced hyperalgesia) and possible diagnostic and treatment tools.

Research

Research Areas:
Acupuncture and alternative medicine
Opioid use in pain management
Oipiod induced hyperalgesia (OIH)

Description of Research:
My current acupuncture study has 4 specific aims; (1) use quantitative testing (QST) as an assessment tool for the effectiveness of acupuncture on clinical pain; (2) compare changes in QST responses and biomarkers following acupuncture therapy; (3) compare effect of acupuncture and pain medication on clinical pain; and (4) using QST explore the outcomes of acupuncture between acupuncture "believers" and "non-believers".

Co-investigator Research:

QST: Compare pain threshold and pain tolerance as measured by QST in opioid naive subjects, in chronic pain patients  not using opioids, and in chronic pain patients using opioids.

Ketamine:  Compare pain threshold, tolerance and wind up, using QST before and after a single dose of ketamine to chronic pain patients with and without opioid therapy.

PublicationsView publications