Robert Dworkin, MD

Dr. Dworkins major research interests are (1) methodologic aspects of analgesic clinical trials and (2) treatment and prevention of chronic neuropathic and musculoskeletal pain. The primary focus of his current research involves the identification of factors that increase the assay sensitivity of clinical trials to detect differences between an active and a control or comparison treatment. In ongoing studies, his group is examining the relationships between clinical trial results and their research designs, patient characteristics, and outcome measures. His program of research and other efforts to improve the efficiency and informativeness of analgesic clinical trials are being conducted under the auspices of the ACTTION public-private partnership with the FDA. Dr. Dworkin also been very interested in the identification of risk factors for the development of chronic pain. One of his major results has been that patients with greater acute pain are more likely to develop chronic pain. This suggests that attenuating acute pain might prevent chronic pain, and an additional focus of his research has involved developing approaches to test this hypothesis.