Up to 5% of teens suffer from high impact chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain, affecting all life domains. Discovery of robust markers of the recovery vs. persistence of pain and disability is essential to develop more resourceful and patient-specific treatment strategies and to conceive novel approaches that benefit patients who are refractory to existing treatment options.

The primary goal of this 5-year NIH Multi-Site Mechanistic Study, “SPRINT: Signature for Pain Recovery IN Teens,” is to develop a signature comprising of brain, somatosensory, psychological, and immune markers for the recovery of pediatric chronic MSK pain. Specifically, in the discovery phase (R61), the aim is to identify biological signatures (e.g., multivariate biological pattern) that will identify adolescents with MSK pain that respond to treatment, and those whose pain persists, as defined by pain severity and functional disability 3 months after baseline. Our expertise in machine learning approaches to extract reliable and prognostic bio-signatures from a large and complex data set will make this possible. In the validation phase (R33), the aim is to validate and clinically evaluate the support tool derived in the first phase in a new cohort of patients. We expect to enroll 250 adolescents in the discovery phase, and 125 in the validation phase.

This project is made possible by the National Institutes of Health HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-Term) Initiative, which works to characterize and combat the global opioid crisis.

Learn More: https://heal.nih.gov/

For additional information about SPRINT, see our ClinicalTrials.gov registration here.