Yale researchers investigate sex differences in pain treatment outcomes

The Women’s Health Research Team will study the interactions between gender, pain, and treatment outcomes in opioid use disorders.

Charlotte Hughes 10/01/2021, 12:43 AM

Contributing Reporter

Emily Cai

The Yale School of Medicine’s Women’s Health Research Center funded a new study to examine gender differences in clinical outcomes in pain management and in the treatment of opioid use disorders.

The center promotes research on human health that is different by gender and gender, and communicates research findings to policy makers and the public so that they can be put into practice. Lead researchers on the study include Sarah Yip, assistant professor of psychiatry and director of the Yale Imaging and Psychopharmacology Lab; Sarah Flechtenstein, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Declan Barry, Associate Professor of Psychiatry. The team will use a novel brain mapping technique to find the neural pathways responsible for feeling pain and stopping that pain when someone uses opioids. In contrast to previous studies, this research will aim to find out how these neural pathways differ by gender.

“Chronic pain is common in women, and research suggests gender differences in clinical outcomes in managing pain and treating opioid use disorders,” Yip wrote in an email to the News. “However, we know very little about interactions between gender, pain, and treatment outcomes in opioid use disorders.”

According to Rick Harrison, the centre’s communications officer, the study is timely and relevant as 70 percent of Americans who experience chronic pain are women. In addition, women are disproportionately exposed to opioids for pain management and become more dependent on these drugs.

Although the study is still ongoing, the team hopes to identify treatment goals for substance use based on how the brains of women and men process rewards differently. The researchers hope to be able to identify people at increased risk of relapse and provide those at risk with additional resources, such as addiction prevention counselors.

“The current standard of addiction treatment often involves multiple failed attempts,” Yip said in an interview submitted to the Innovations in Women’s Health newsletter. “Identifying the people most in need and developing treatments that are best suited to their individual needs would save money in the long run. More importantly, women suffer, and science can show us how we can help. “

Lichenstein noted that the study draws on previous research using connectome-based predictive modeling – a map of neural connections in the brain. Connectome-based predictive modeling is a data-driven protocol. First, the researchers create a predictive model by examining a training data set of brain images and behavior. Then they try to find connections between the training dataset to predict the same behavior in the test dataset.

Lichenstein adds that this research has inherent challenges, especially given the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Recruiting and retaining this patient population in research can be difficult, especially given the increasing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lichtenstein wrote via email. She pointed out difficulties with employment, transportation and childcare.

The study is longitudinal, which means that it takes place over a longer period of time. Study leaders will follow up participants for up to a year after the initial brain imaging. While Lichenstein cited participant retention as a longitudinal work challenge, she said that similar studies she led have always successfully overcome that challenge.

Janine Clayton, director of the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, said in an interview with Carolyn M. Mazure, director of the Women’s Health Research Center at Yale, the importance of scientific research that takes gender and gender into account.

“Research has shown that gender matters on every level, from a single cell to a societal level,” said Clayton. “We also know that gender self-portrayal can affect symptom expression, the manifestation of the disease, and the effectiveness of treatment. So if gender and gender are not considered, clinicians cannot make the best treatment decisions for all patients. ”

As the understanding of gender and gender has evolved over the past 20 years, areas of scientific research have also evolved. In her interview with Mazure, Clayton said that “intersex and non-binary identities must be recognized as these also have health implications”. She added that the “intersection of gender, gender, race and ethnicity” is also an important area of ​​research.

The Women’s Health Research Center was founded by Mazure in 1998.

source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/10/01/yale-researchers-investigate-sex-differences-in-pain-treatment-outcomes/