What we do

We perform studies that revolve around brain mechanisms involved in pain control. Our team uses laboratory pain testing and brain scans in order to study the neural correlates of pain, both in healthy volunteers and patients suffering from long-term pain.

Ongoing data collections

The PrePain Project

PrePain is short for Predict and Prevent Pain - the name of a large prospective study and database. The goal is to find factors among healthy individuals that predict future development of long-term pain. Utilising the fact that several hundreds of healthy participants perform brain scans at Karolinska Institutet each year, we will collect both structural and functional brain images from a large group of healthy individuals. We will pair this baseline information, which also includes DNA sampling, with future searches for pain diagnoses in Sweden’s unique health registries. The combination of fMRI data, genetics, and registry based research allows us to look for factors predicting the development of chronic pain. The project is supported by FORTE and the Lundblad Family Foundation.

PrePain collects data at Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University (SUBIC). For more detailed information see our PrePain homepage: kipain.com/pre-pain

Principal Investigator: Karin Jensen

Pediatric pain

In this project we combine experimental pain methods, neuroimaging and self-assessments from children with functional abdominal pain disorders and their parents. We will determine three key aspects for the emergence of functional abdominal pain disorders: the child’s psychiatric comorbidity, parental overprotective behaviors and catastrophic thoughts, and the child’s pain regulation. We will also assess to which degree these aspects predict the child’s treatment response to internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy and subsequently, based on these results, develop and evaluate tailored add-on treatment modules. The overall aim of the project is to enable an individualized and improved internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for children with functional abdominal pain disorders. The project is a collaboration with BUP Internetbehandling and is funded by Familjen Kamprads stiftelse, Fredrik & Ingrid Thurings stiftelse and Alf Medicin project grant.

Principal Investigator: Maria Lalouni

Project coordinator: Viktor Vadenmark Lundqvist (PhD student)

Pain and Cognition

Here, we investigate the association between pain, cognition and brain function. We perform longitudinal behavioral and neuroimaging assessments of the interaction between long-term nociplastic pain and cognition. Large-scale longitudinal behavioral data will be collected online over the course of 8 weeks to measure pain symptoms and cognition in participants with diagnosed fibromyalgia and pain-free controls

Principal Investigator: Karin Jensen

Project coordinator: Julie Klinke (PhD student)