Early career investigator highlight: Dr. Raissa Nobrega

Patients with sickle cell disease often experience severe pain as a result of vaso-occlusive episodes. Typically their pain is managed with opioids, however some patients experience continued and increasing pain, believed to be as a result of opioid-induced hyperalgesia or tolerance. Many patients go on to develop chronic pain which is thought to have a neuropathic component, for which opioids are ineffective. Ketamine has been suggested as an adjuvant to opioids to treat chronic and acute pain. In this episode, we meet an Early Career Investigator, Dr. Raissa Nobrega, who has a passion for paediatric pain management and who recently published an exploratory study into the patient characteristics that affect the response to ketamine and opioids in these patients. Article link: https://www.nature.com/articles/pr2017283