Name
Tom J. Snijders
Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery
Section Cerebrovascular disorders
Function MD, PhD student
E-mail:
t.j.snijders@umcutrecht.nl tel: +31-88 75 57571
Supervisor Prof. J.Van Gijn, Prof. N.F.Ramsey, dr. A.J.M. van Wijck
Title research Chronic unexplained pain: functional neuroimaging from a clinical perspective
Title research line Chronic, unexplained pain
Summary research
Background:
Chronic, unexplained pain (CUP) is a common clinical problem of ill-understood etiology. Attentional disturbances are implied in its pathophysiology. We hypothesize that generalised attentional disturbances play an important role in cerebral pain processing in CUP, and that associated clinical characteristics predict clinical outcome in these patients.
Plan
1. APPROACH-PAIN (Attentional PROcessing And CHronic PAIN): Functional MRI study of attention-dependent pain processing in CUP and comparison of fMRI findings between CUP patients, healthy persons and chronic, explained pain patients.
2. PROFILE-PAIN (PROgnostic Factors In the Long-term Evaluation of unexplained PAIN): Acquisition of clinical (sociodemographic, psychological, treatment-related) parameters in a prospective cohortstudy.
3. Correlation of fMRI findings to clinical data.
PublicationsSnijders TJ, Ramsey NF, van Gijn J. [Functional imaging of the brain in the investigation of chronic unexplained pain] [Article in Dutch]. Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd 2007;151(8):461-5.
Snijders TJ, de Leeuw FE, Klumpers UM, Kappelle LJ, van Gijn J. Prevalence and predictors of unexplained neurological symptoms in an academic neurology outpatient clinic--an observational study. J Neurol 2004;251(1):66-71.