Pain and Irritability of Unknown Origin

Our international team of researchers is currently conducting a CHILD-BRIGHT funded study examining Pain and Irritability of Unknown Origin (PIUO) titled "Optimizing the Management of Pain and Irritability in Children with Severe Neurological Impairment"

About the Study

What is this study about?

The purpose of this project is to develop, test, and disseminate a new approach to reducing and resolving pain in children with Severe Neurological Impairments (SNI). It focuses on the problem of ongoing, unexplained, and difficult-to-treat pain and irritability that many children with SNI, and their families, experience.

Participate in Our Research

If your child is experiencing pain and you don't know why, you might be eligible to participate in the PIUO Study.

We are looking for children between 6 months and 18 years with neurological problems, who cannot communicate verbally about their pain and continue to have unexplained pain. The pain must not be due to accidents, injury or to medical procedures, and must not have responded to treatments in the past.

Past Projects and Publications

We developed the PIUO Pathway based on best evidence from existing literature. We also performed a pilot observational study in 10 non-verbal children with Severe Neurological Impairments (SNI).

The children ranged in age from 5 to 17 years and their SNI had a wide variety of causes, with high degrees of medical complexity and communication impairment. The children were recruited from community pediatric practices and all were followed by hospital sub-specialists. Our results were surprising: while it might be assumed that evaluation for pain and irritability would be thorough and revealing, just the opposite occurred in these children (. . .)