FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
You may be eligible if you are 11-18 years old, have a diagnosis of chronic musculoskeletal pain, and are undergoing or planning to receive pain management services. This may include medication, pain psychology, physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, or any other plan agreed upon with your clinical team.
Stanford University, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and Toronto SickKids are enrolling. If you would like to join or have questions, contact us.
Our study involves about 3-4 hours of in-person testing including questionnaires on an iPad, a small blood draw, a 1-hour MRI, and sensory testing (in which we measure sensitivity to light touch, pinprick, cold, and pressure). We then ask you to complete brief online follow-up surveys at home every two weeks for 3 months, and then just once at 6, 9, and 12 months after your visit.
If you will be participating at Cincinnati Children’s or Stanford, you must have a parent with you if you are under 18 years of age. If you will be joining at the University of Toronto, you can join the project on your own if you are over 11 years, however, parent participation is welcomed as we use some of this information as well!
Yes! The scheduling of compensation varies slightly across sites, but equals about $350 USD total when you and/or your parent complete all timepoints in the study.
All study personnel are trained and certified to protect you and/or your parent’s identity. Study coordinators, investigators, institutional ethics boards, and the NIH team overseeing this project may have access to the data we collect. When we share or publish our findings, all information is deidentified – meaning it cannot be traced back to you.
Unfortunately, at this time we can only enroll participants who are able to come in to complete the assessments. If you would like to see if you qualify for any remote studies being run by our universities, contact us!
We may still love to have you come in and complete what you are able to. Reach out to the site nearest you and we will let you know!
No. The tests we run through the study are for research purposes and are not standard diagnostic tests, meaning they cannot be interpreted medically. Your participation contributes to creating better tests in the future.