From Cheewee Tan

Revision as of 09:47, 27 March 2007

Pain Research - Queen Margaret University

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Personal Details

Academic’s Name: Chee-Wee, Tan
Position: Lecturer
University: Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
School: School of Health Sciences
Subject Area: Physiotherapy
Room: G87a, Leith Campus
Phone: (+44) 0131 3173641
Email: ctan@qmuc.ac.uk

Research Groups:
Pain & Palliative Care Research Focus Group
Lymphoedema Research Focus Group

Research interests:
Applied pain psychophysics, the role of attention in chronic pain, Signal Detection Theory.

Current research:
Pain - I am currently investigation the use of signal detection theory as an experimental paradigm to assess to influence of pain on attentional capacity. The modality of experimental pain induction is thermal stimulation. The working hypothesis is that as the temperatures of the stimuli increase, the associated magnitude of pain increases correspondingly. In doing so, the increased magnitude of pain may disrupt the attentional capacity of the observer such that the discrimination ability is reduced. This will be reflected in the observer’s lower sensitivity for the discrimination task. It may be that chronic pain sufferers perform poorer on discrimination tasks due to the disruptive nature of their clinical pain. However, further research is warranted to understand the mechanism for this disruptive nature of pain.
Sham/Placebo Acupuncture - The use of sham and placebo acupuncture is becoming more common in clinical acupuncture research. Despite claims that sham acupuncture provides a credible simulation of real acupuncture, the methodology for trials assessing the credibility of sham acupuncture is inappropriate. Our team is currently using signal detection theory as a model for investigating the ability of Park sham acupuncture to simulate real acupuncture.

Publications:

TAN CW, PALMER ST, MARTIN DJ & ROCHE PA (2007). Detection-theory analysis of scaling and discrimination tasks: Responses to noxious thermal stimuli. Perception & Psychophysics, in press.[2]

Conference proceedings:
TAN CW, PALMER S, MARTIN D, ROCHE P. (2005). Chronic pain sufferers exhibit poorer noxious discrimination ability compared to healthy individuals. 11th World Congress on Pain, Sydney, Australia, August 21-26, 1596-P99.[3]

TAN CW, PALMER S, MARTIN D, VETO J, ROCHE P. (2005). The effects of a topical anaesthetic (EMLA®) on noxious thermal discrimination: A psychophysical study. The Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting, Edinburgh, March 8-11, p22.[4]

TAN CW, PALMER S, MARTIN D, ROCHE P. (2005). The influence of stimulus presentation frequency on noxious thermal discrimination: A methodological study. The Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting, Edinburgh, March 8-11, p23.[5]

TAN CW, PALMER S, MARTIN D, KIRK K. (2004). Comparison of context-coding noise within discrimination and intensity rating methods in the study of pain perception. The Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting, Manchester, March 30-April 2, p105.

For Colleagues:

Nil

For Students:

The materials you need can be found on the WebCT created for that particular module. Access these through the University intranet.

Modules currently taught:

Entry-level modules:
Introduction to Research
Electrophysical Agents in Musculoskeletal Practice
Biomechanics
Interprofessional Studies

Postgraduate modules:
Research Methods 1

Useful Links:
International Association for the Study of Pain [6]
The British Pain Society [7]
International Society for Psychophysics [8]
American Pain Society [9]

Open Access Journals
Molecular Pain [10]

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