Welcome to the Pain Research Group!
The Pain Research Group is housed in the Department of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The goal of the Pain Research Group is to better understand biological, psychological, and contextual mechanisms underlying chronic and acute pain in order to optimize interventions. Dr. Stephen Bruehl leads the adult branch of the Pain Research Group with three current NIH-funded studies encompassing endogenous opioid functioning, oxidative stress and postoperative pain, and mechanisms driving complementary/integrative intervention responsiveness in patients with chronic pain. Dr. Amanda Stone leads the pediatric branch of the Pain Research Group with current projects focused around evaluating the intergenerational transmission of pain behaviors and medication use from parents to children.
We hope that our work will ultimately inform personalized medicine approaches to the treatment of pain across the lifespan.