The Intramural Research Program is composed of two research groups within the Laboratory of Symptoms Management and the Pain Research Unit, a component of the Office of the Scientific Director. The Laboratory of Symptom Management includes a broad program of basic and clinical research that addresses:

• The biological mechanisms underlying a single symptom or cluster of symptoms
• The subjective measurement of symptom intensity and its effect on patients
• The response of patients to clinical interventions designed to reduce the symptom burden of an illness or its treatment and improve functional status and quality of life

Current studies and protocols under development are utilizing available resources and personnel to develop greater understanding of the molecular and genetic factors that contribute to pain and disease-related symptoms, to evaluate the effects of these symptoms on quality of life, to evaluate prototypic interventions that may improve therapy and to develop patient reported outcome measures to capture these experiences at the level of the individual patient.

The Laboratory of Symptom Management incorporates the Mucosal Injury Unit and the Patient Research Unit. Evaluations of novel interventions for the management of symptoms associated with cancer-therapy and GVHD are described in Mucosal Injury Unit summary. Current and planned studies of quality of life and the development of patient-reported outcomes are described for the Patient Reported Outcomes Core.

Proposed research projects, as described under the Pain Research Unit, will investigate individual responder approaches for pain and symptoms research, evaluate molecular-genetic mechanisms that contribute to individual variability in pain and analgesia, and further evaluate the reciprocal interplay between inflammation, gene expression and COX inhibitory drugs that modulate therapeutic responses and adverse events.

Mailing Address:

National Institute of Nursing Research
Intramural Division
Hatfield Clinical Research Center 2-1339, MSC 1506
National Institutes of Health
10 Center Drive
Bethesda, MD 20892-2178

Directions / Map

General Information:

For general inquiries about NINR-DIR please email NINRIRInfo@nih.gov.

Or contact us by phone: 301.451.1678.