The Finan Lab
Welcome to The Finan Lab
The Finan Lab focuses broadly on explicating psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of chronic pain. Within that broad domain, we specifically seek to identify how emotions and pain interact, who evidences characteristics of emotion-related risk and resilience, and when changes in emotions facilitate or inhibit the experience of pain.
We employ intensive longitudinal methods to assess behavioral and objective correlates of pain in real time (e.g., sleep; emotions; opioid use; cannabis use), and utilize laboratory-based experimental methods to understand factors influencing pain perception (e.g., sleep deprivation; quantitative sensory testing; fMRI; pharmacological challenge). Additionally, we develop and test novel therapeutic interventions that engage affect- and sleep-related mechanisms to ameliorate pain and mitigate problematic opioid use.
About the Finan Lab
Patrick H. Finan, PhD
Harold Carron Professor of Anesthesiology
Patrick H. Finan, PhD, is the Harold Carron Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He is a clinical pain psychologist and an expert in cognitive, behavioral, and affective mechanisms and treatments for chronic pain.
He has an active NIH-funded research program that utilizes laboratory (e.g. experimental sleep disruption; quantitative sensory testing; fMRI), ambulatory (e.g. actigraphy; EEG; ecological momentary assessment), and psychotherapeutic intervention (e.g. meditation; cognitive-behavioral therapy) methodologies to probe mechanisms related to chronic pain. Dr. Finan is an Associate Editor for PAIN and is actively involved in committees for the United States Association for the Study of Pain, the International Association for the Study of Pain, and the Winter Conference on Brain Research.
Dr. Finan’s research interests include the biobehavioral features of emotion regulation in individuals with chronic pain. A major focus of his research to date has centered on the measurement and analysis of dynamic measures of pain and emotion captured in the course of daily life. We employ laboratory tools, such as quantitative sensory testing and sleep deprivation, to investigate the reproducibility of information gathered in daily life. We are currently developing behavioral (e.g., sleep behaviors) and neurobiological (e.g., dopaminergic neurotransmission) models to understand the influence of positive emotion and reward processing on pain sensitivity and coping with chronic pain. In the long term, our aim is to improve treatment options for individuals with chronic pain, including those with comorbid substance use disorders.
Current Funding Support
5/1/19-3/31/24
Effects of Sleep Disruption on Subjective Responses to Opioid Administration in
Patients with Chronic Pain
R01DA048206
NIH/NIDA
PI: PH Finan
Role: Principal Investigator
9/1/19-8/31/23
Evaluating the Role of the Orexin System in Circadian Rhythms of Sleep and Stress in Persons on Medication-Assisted Treatments for Opioid Use Disorder
U01HL150835
NIH/NHLBI
PI: AS Huhn/PH Finan
Role: Multiple Principal Investigator
7/1/18-6/30/23
Experimental model of chronic pain risk: Insomnia, inflammation, central sensitization,
and affective disturbance
R01 AG057750
Y4 Award: $663,838
NIH/NIDA
PI: MT Smith
Role: Co-Investigator
9/2/19-8/31/23
Effects of experimental sleep disruption and fragmentation on cerebral mu-opioid
receptor function, mu-opioid receptor agonist analgesia, and abuse liability
U01HL150568
NIH/NHLBI
PI: MT Smith
Role: Co-Investigator
7/1/21-6/30/25
Interdisciplinary Training in Biobehavioral Pain Research
T32NS070201
NIH/NINDS
PI: MT Smith/X Dong
Role: Core Faculty Member and Co-Director of the Quantitative Curriculum
9/1/21-8/31/24
Evaluating Suvorexant for Sleep Disturbance in Opioid Use Disorder
UH3DA058734
NIH/NIDA
PI: A Huhn/K Dunn
Role: Co-Investigator
04/01/2022-03/31/2027
Randomized Clinical Trial Intervention to Treat Chronic Pain Among Persons
Maintained on Methadone for Opioid Use Disorder
R01DA056045
NIH/NIDA
PI: K Dunn
Role: Co-Investigator
3/1/22-2/28/27
A staged, comprehensive investigation for developing insular deep brain stimulation to
treat refractory chronic pain
UH3NS123308
NIH/NINDS
PI: WJ Elias/CC Liu
Role: Co-Investigator
7/1/2022-6/30/2027
Discovery to commercialization program for substance abuse prevention and treatment
(D2C:SAPT)
UE5DA056878
NIH/NIDA
PI: P Phan/K Dunn
Role: Co-Investigator
Research Associate at the University of Virginia
Carly Hunt, PhD
Research Associate
Dr. Carly Hunt joined UVA Anesthesiology as a Research Associate at the Finan Lab in 2022. She is interested in optimizing non-pharmacological pain treatments, including mindfulness-based and positive psychological interventions.
Dr. Hunt previously completed postdoctoral fellowship training in the Johns Hopkins Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences after graduating from the University of Maryland with a PhD in Counseling Psychology in 2019.
Post-Doctoral Fellows at Johns Hopkins University
Carol Climent Sanz BSc, MSc, PhD
Dr. Carolina Climent Sanz is a Physiotherapist. She holds a Master of Science in Physiology and Neuroscience, and a PhD in Comprehensive Care and Health Services from the University of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain). Her current position is as
Margarita Salas Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Climent Sanz mostly used qualitative methods to investigate how women diagnosed with fibromyalgia experience pain and sleep problems, as well as their perceptions of self-management strategies and prescribed treatments intended to manage those symptoms. Her current motivation is to expand my skills in mixed-methods research to investigate what measurable characteristics of chronic pain patients could predict the inter-individual variability in pain and sleep outcomes of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments.
Caitlin DuPont, PhD
Dr. Caitlin DuPont is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a doctorate in Clinical and Biological-Health Psychology and completed a clinical internship at the Baltimore VA.
Dr. DuPont is very interested in understanding the various physiological, social, and behavioral pathways by which reducing stress and enhancing positive emotions may decrease risk for chronic pain conditions.
Jennifer Ellis, PhD
Dr. Jennifer Ellis is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Behavioral Pharmacology Unit at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Ellis’ research focuses on optimizing opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment for individuals presenting with co-occurring symptoms, including chronic pain, major depressive disorder, and insomnia.
Dr. Ellis is interested in using person-centered statistical approaches (e.g., LCA, GMM) to explore whether patients with OUD can be classified into clinically meaningful subgroups based on patterns of co-occurring symptoms and symptom trajectories. In addition, the research explores whether these subgroups differ with regard to risk factors and treatment outcomes. She is also interested in improving OUD treatment for underserved and marginalized groups.
Matthew Reid, PhD
Dr. Reid is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Reid is originally from the UK and joined the BMRL at Johns Hopkins University in 2020 after previously completing a PhD (DPhil) in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford.
His research interests broadly center around the association between sleep and mental illness. With the goal of improving clinical outcomes, Dr. Reid’s work aims to explore this relationship by investigating the mechanisms through which sleep disruption might increase risk for depression, and testing sleep interventions in patients with mental illness.
Selected Publications
Finan, PH., Hunt, CA., Mun, CJ., Lerman, SF., Tennen, H., Smith, MT.,
Haythornthwaite, JA. “The association of affective state with the assimilation of daily pain expectancy and pain experience.” PAIN 2022, In Press.
Huhn, AS., Finan, PH., Gamaldo, CE., Hammond, AS., Umbricht, A., Bergeria, CL., Strain, EC., & Dunn, KE. “Efficacy of suvorexant to treat sleep disturbance, opioid withdrawal, and craving during a buprenorphine taper.” Science Translational Medicine 2022; 14, eabn8238.
Hunt, C., Smith, MT., Mun, CJ., Irwin, M., Finan, PH. “Trait positive affect buffers the association between experimental sleep disruption and inflammation.” Psychoneuroendocrinology 2021;129:105240.
Davis, AK., Barrett, FS., May, DG., Cosimano, MP., Sepeda, ND., Johnson, MW., Finan, PH., Griffiths, RR. “Effects of psilocybin-assisted therapy on major depressive disorder: A randomized clinical trial.” JAMA Psychiatry 2021;78:481-489.
Mun, CJ., Finan, PH., Epstein, DH., Kowalczyk, WJ., Agage, D., Letzen, JE., Phillips, KA., Preston, KL. “Craving mediates the association between momentary pain and illicit
opioid use during treatment for opioid use disorder: An ecological momentary
assessment study.” Addiction 2021;116:1794-1804.
Mun, CJ, Letzen, JE, Peters, EN, Campbell, CM, Vandrey, R., Gajewski-Nemes, J.,
DiRenzo, D., Caulfield-Noll, C., Finan, PH. “Cannabinoid effects on responses to
quantitative sensory testing among individuals with and without clinical pain: A
systematic review.” Pain 2020;161:2:244-260.
Seminowicz, DA, Remeniuk, B, Krimmel, S, Smith, MT, Barrett, FS, Wulff, A, Furman, AJ, Geuter, S, Lindquist, MA, Irwin, MR, & Finan, PH. “Pain-related nucleus accumbens function: Modulation by reward and sleep disruption.” Pain 2019;160:1196-1207.