Dr Steven Miller
Profile:
Dr Steven Miller combines clinical and research work, the latter at the Caulfield Pain Management and Research Centre, the Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre and Monash University’s Department of Psychological Medicine. He is currently a registrar of the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Project Title: Investigating a Novel Therapeutic Intervention for Chronic Pain Following Neurotrauma
Lead Institution: Monash University
VNI Funding: $125,488
Funding Period: 2008-2011
Project Summary:
Chronic or persistent pain following neurotrauma is a common, debilitating problem that adds to the substantial rehabilitation barriers facing the injured individual.
This project will assess a novel intervention to reduce pain following neurotrauma in three clinical groups: phantom limb pain, pain following spinal cord injury, and complex regional pain syndrome.
The study will recuit from three tertiary centres and the intervention will involve caloric vestibular stimulation (CVS), an inexpensive, non-invasive procedure that has been shown to temporarily reduce pain in these conditions, but has not been assessed for sustained (pain-management) benefit. Clinical data will be gathered to assess whether CVS can induce sustained pain reductions in the three neurotrauma-related conditions under investigation in this study.
If the CVS technique is found to be clinically effective, potential outcomes include reduced pain scores, improved quality of life and activiites of daily living scores, reduced co-morbid depression scores and improved vocational reintegration. The ease of CVS administration makes it applicable in many different settings, from rural areas, which have a high incidence of neurotrauma, to developing countries, where other treatments are not available.
This will be the first study of its kind worldwide and through further trials, may ultimately change clinical practice in neurotrauma rehabilitation.
