DISSERTATION DEFENSE: PSYCHIATRIC AND PAIN RISK GENES THAT MAY WORSEN QUALITY OF LIFE IN CHRONIC PANCREATITIS PATIENTS
July 13, 2022
Dissertation Defense - Ellyn Dunbar - HUGEN PhD Candidate
Department of Human Genetics Doctoral Candidate, Ellyn Dunbar, defends her dissertation on “Psychiatric and Pain Risk Genes that May Worsen Quality of Life in Chronic Pancreatitis Patients”
ADVISOR: David C. Whitcomb, MD, PhD
Committee Members:
- Daniel E. Weeks, PhD
- David N. Finegold, MD
- John R. Shaffer, PhD
ABSTRACT:
Pancreatitis, a fibro-inflammatory disease, can result in debilitating abdominal pain. Pancreatitis pain can be difficult to treat even with surgery and opioids. The pain caused by pancreatitis can vary in severity and frequency even within patients with similar physical disease states. The purpose of this collection of papers in this dissertation is to identify genetic variation between pancreatitis patients within different patterns of pain in hopes that these results can be used to guide future precision medicine treatments of pancreatitis pain.
Patients with chronic and/or recurrent acute pancreatitis from the North American Pancreatitis Study II (NAPS2) of European Ancestry were studied across all three aims. Aim 1 identified that genetic risk loci for depression are associated with constant-severe pain in pancreatitis patients using a candidate gene study. Similarly, Aim 2 found that genetic risk for anxiety and PTSD are also associated with constant, constant-severe, and severe pain. Aim 3 pulled the focus back to genome-wide associations and post-genome-wide association study methods, such as a transcriptome-wide association study and colocalization, to identify higher level associations with constant, constant-severe, severe and no pain in patients with chronic and/or recurrent acute pancreatitis.
These results are new in the field, and necessary for future studies into precision treatments for patients with pancreatitis pain that could replace ineffective pain treatments and increase patients’ physical and mental quality of life.
Dial-In Information
ZOOM/VIRTUAL ONLINE EVENT - ALL WELCOME (Advance Registration Required) https://pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eDupMPcLM9UOuCG
Wednesday, July 13 at 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Virtual Event
EVENT TYPE
Defenses
TOPIC
Research
TARGET AUDIENCE
Undergraduate Students, Staff, Alumni, Prospective Students, Faculty, Graduate Students, Postdocs, Residents & Fellows
WEBSITE
https://calendar.pitt.edu/pitt-public...
UNIVERSITY UNIT
Department of Human Genetics
HASHTAG
#publichealth.pitt.edu
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up